neighbour
/ˈneɪbə
/(US neighbor)
noun
1A person living next door to or very near to the speaker or person referred to: our garden was the envy of the neighbours...
- We did speak with one of his next-door neighbours who claims to be a family friend as well who kind of defended the doctors.
- But I'd sometimes go to the next-door neighbours who had a cow called Buttercup.
- Most Australians don't know their next-door neighbours or care what becomes of them.
1.1A person or place in relation to others next or near to it: I chatted with my neighbour on the flight to New York matching our investment levels with those of our European neighbours...
- It had good relations with its neighbors and other countries, and the people were largely contented.
- Maintaining friendly relations with neighbours and calm within the country are the big tasks ahead.
- It is good politics for any country to have friendly relations with its neighbours.
1.2Any person in need of one’s help or kindness (after biblical use): love thy neighbour as thyself...
- And Matthew said most important of all, is love, love thy neighbor as thyself.
- What Jesus does say repeatedly is to love thy neighbor as thyself.
- To love thy neighbour as thyself is also a common teaching to many religions.
verb [with object]
(Of a place or object) be situated next to or very near (another): the square neighbours the old quarter of the town...
- Our soldiers are sent to the south to patrol an area neighboring Chechnya.
- The region neighboring the telomeres also appears to be rich in duplicated regions.
- The site is in an area neighboring a residential part of the city, north of Harbin.
Synonyms
adjacent, nearest, closest, next-door, next, adjoining, bordering, connecting, abutting, contiguous, proximate;
nearby, near, very near, close/near at hand, not far away, in the vicinity, in close proximity, surrounding
rare conjoining, approximate, vicinal
Derivatives
neighbourless
- Louise and Jerry were neighborless, only a barren nondescript storefront occupied the space to their left.
- He was quite dismayed when I told him, as apparently his group had thought they were neighbourless.
- Trading urban sprawl for expansive green fields and terraces for neighbourless living surely suggests a burning desire for a change of pace.
neighbourship
Origin
Old English nēahgebūr, from nēah 'nigh, near' + gebūr 'inhabitant, peasant, farmer' (compare with boor).
boor from mid 16th century:
Before the Norman Conquest a gebūr was a peasant or tenant farmer, and is the source of boor, ‘a rough and bad-mannered person’. The Normans swept away the Anglo-Saxon social structure, and with it the word, until in the mid 16th century English readopted it from related Dutch and German words meaning a peasant or rustic. Much later, in the 19th century, the Dutch word boer gave rise to the Boer farmer of southern Africa. The second part of the word is also found in neighbour—literally a ‘nigh or near boor’ and in use in Old English.
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