Slang dictionary
friends with benefits
[ frendz with ben-uh-fits ]
What does friends with benefits mean?
Friends with benefits聽are two people who engage in sexual activity without being in a committed relationships.
翱苍濒颈苍别,听friends with benefits is sometimes abbreviated as FWB.
Where does friends with benefits come from?
Friends with benefits are two close pals who occasionally hook up without any of the usual relationship baggage that comes with sex (the benefits)鈥攜ou know, like romance and exclusivity. Humans have surely been attempting, and almost always failing at, such a gig since the beginning of time,聽but credit for the term聽friends with benefits is given to singer Alanis Morissette.
On her award-winning 1995聽Jagged Little Pill track “Head Over Feet,” Morissette sing: “You’re my best friend / Best friend with benefits.”聽Isn’t it ironic, though, that Morissette here is talking about a lover鈥攖hat is, being in romantic relationship鈥攚ho is also a close friend?
The meaning of the phrase soon started shifting.聽In 1997, for instance, internet user聽Squeaker Munchkin pondered in a forum:聽“How do you classify a relationship of sleeping with your best friend?…Is this a ‘best friends with benefits’ thing, or a ‘non-relationship’…or聽an unofficial relationship that could become something better?”
Well, Squeaker, it all depends. Sex makes things messy. Feeling always get in the way. By the聽1990s, friends with benefits was an established term for two friends who have occasional casual sex.
Interest in the phrase spiked in 2011 with the release of the rom-com聽Friends with Benefits, starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake. Guess what? Things get complicated. A competing flick,聽No Strings Attached, with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, also explored the theme that year.
Examples of friends with benefits
Who uses friends with benefits?
Friends with benefits is often prized as an ideal but ultimately acknowledged as naive.
Saying you are friends with benefits with someone always elicits a sarcastic reply of “”Yeah, right” or “Say goodbye to that friendship, then” or “You’ve got yourself a relationship.”
And, being聽friends with benefits聽requires maturity, honesty, and commitment from both parties … like any relationship.
On the internet and dating apps, friend with benefits is often shortened to the acronym 贵奥叠.听While it is often said of opposite-sex friends, friends with benefits of course applies to (and fails among) same-sex pairs, as well.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of friends with benefits like most terms we define on 亚洲网紅露点, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of friends with benefits that will help our users expand their word mastery.