blood brother
11
5.1
- noun
- /blʌd ˈbrʌðər/
:
hermano de sangre
- We're blood brothers, right?
- become blood brothers
- Now we are blood brothers
I think if I should cut my own blood brother in that act, he knows what to happen.
- I think if I should cut my own blood brother in that act, he knows what to happen.
Examples
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He and Jesse are best friends... cousins... blood brothers.
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He's married to Guyasuta's daughter and is a blood brother of the Senecas.
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Now, we're blood brothers for life.
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"Tom was a friend, a blood brother."
Fiction book (1992) -
Because he is my blood brother, I can look into his eyes and speak to him without the presence of my mother.
Fiction book (1992) -
In America, you swear loyalty by becoming blood brothers, yes?
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Don Pasqualino and I are just like blood brothers.
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He is my friend and my blood brother.
Fiction book (1992) -
Now we're blood brothers.
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When they pricked their fingers during the ceremony, they vowed to be blood brothers for life.
Antonyms
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun combines 'blood' (evoking kinship) with 'brother', so learners who know both words can infer a close familial-type relationship, but the specific sense — a non‑biological, sworn bond often involving a blood ceremony — is not directly predictable and can be mistaken for a literal biological brother. Cross‑linguistically similar concepts exist, but the ritualized/figurative nuance makes the expression only partially transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Blood brother comes from a ceremony where two men make a small cut and mix a little of their blood to promise to be like brothers to each other. So today it means 'not a real brother but someone with a bond as strong as one'.