“Friends with benefits” can be abbreviated to FWB.
Meaning
“Friends with benefits” is a noun phrase and is used a lot in colloquial, informal situations. The phrase is used to describe a sexual relationship between friends. Typically, the two friends make an arrangement between each other that the relationship will remain casual and they won’t commit to one another.
The friends are not looking for a serious relationship and their friendship may be more important to them than forming a romantic or monogamous relationship. They want casual sex without committing to one another and may be dating other people at the same time.
There is a movie called “Friends with Benefits” which follows two good friends who decide the want a sexual relationship without committing to one another. Throughout the movie we are shown the positive and negative aspects of this type of relationship.
Examples
- Is that your boyfriend? No, we’re just friends with benefits, neither of us want to commit to being in a relationship right now.
- They are friends with benefits, they don’t want a monogamous relationship.
- A lot of people in college have friends with benefits.
- Have you ever had a friend with benefits? No, I like to commit to the person before we have a sexual relationship.
Dialogue
- How did you meet your husband?
- We met in the first year of college.
- Was it love at first sight?
- Not really, at the beginning we just had a casual relationship, we were friends with benefits. But after a while we both decided we wanted more.
- What do you mean?
- It became obvious to both of us that that we wanted to commit to one another. We spent all our time together and neither of us were interested in meeting other people. So we decided to make it official and commit to one another.
- And look at you both now, twenty years later and you’re still madly in love!
Related idioms
The idiom no strings attached has a similar meaning. The word strings is used here to represent a commitment or responsibility. If you have a sexual relationship with somebody and there are no strings attached, this means you are not committing to the other person and have no obligation to that person. It can be used to indicate a casual sexual encounter or relationship with somebody.
This phrase can be used in other situations too like when you do a favour for someone and say no strings attached. This means that you are doing the favour because you want to and you aren’t expecting anything in return.
Here are a few examples:
- They have a no strings attached agreement, neither of them expect anything from the other.
- They slept together with no strings attached as they knew they would never see each other again.
- I will help you with the project, no strings attached.
- She is so generous, she drove me to the bus station with no strings attached.
