with friends like that, who needs enemies?

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Someone who is supposed to be a friend is being harmful or unhelpful

Examples

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “with friends like that, who needs enemies?” mean?

Someone who is supposed to be a friend is being harmful or unhelpful

Is “with friends like that, who needs enemies?” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.