Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A longtime close friend or companion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A feeble and withered old woman; a crone.
  • noun An old familiar friend; an intimate companion; an associate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A crone.
  • noun colloq., colloq. An intimate companion; a familiar friend.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal Close friend.
  • noun informal Trusted companion or partner in a criminal organization.
  • noun obsolete An old woman; a crone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a close friend who accompanies his buddies in their activities

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly from Greek khronios, long lasting, from khronos, time.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined between 1655 and 1665 from Ancient Greek χρόνιος (khrónios, "perennial, long-lasting") (English chrono- ("time"), initially as Cambridge University slang, in sense of “chum”, as “friend of long standing”, with illegal connotation later.

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