friend

a fair-weather friend someone who cannot be relied on in a crisis.

2013Daily Telegraph It destroys any pretence that the EU has at its heart a belief in democracy, or in those warm words so often repeated about it being the guardian of essential 'European' qualities. In truth it was only a fair-weather friend and its behaviour in this storm, as in others, is to drop these benevolent ideas like hot stones.

a friend at court a person in a position to use influence on your behalf.

a friend of Dorothy a homosexual person. informal euphemistic

☞ The expression alludes to Dorothy Gale, the young heroine of Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz (1900), played in the 1939 film version by Judy Garland, who later became a gay icon.

friends in high places people in senior positions who are able and willing to use their influence on your behalf.

man's best friend: seeman.