there are some people who are your friend in the time of need,and they ignore you the other times,so what do you call them? a poet calls them "flies around a sweetmeat".
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It's a full sentence, with a melody: Nobody knows you when you're down and out.– John LawlerCommented Dec 31, 2014 at 19:58
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4 Answers
"a fair-weather friend" is an idiom.
- "someone who is your friend only when things are pleasant or going well for you" TFD
- "loyal or helpful only during times of success and happiness" Merriam-Webster
You could also say "an opportunistic friend", "an opportunistic friendship"
answered Dec 31, 2014 at 18:17
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1Another quote for you, from Ambrose Bierce’s The Devil’s Dictionary: “FRIENDSHIP, n. A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul.” Commented Jan 1, 2015 at 5:56
The term I would use is "false friends."
"What you mean, 'We,' kemosabe?"
This [the following additions, to obey the site's rules to the letter] is very much like having to explain a joke after you've told it, but Howard Schweber writes at The World Post, 1969:
In a classic Mad Magazine cartoon ... the Lone Ranger and Tonto are surrounded by a horde of hostile Indian warriors. The Lone Ranger says to Tonto "what do we do, now?," to which Tonto replies, "what you mean 'we,' kemosabe?"
[Tonto usually referred to his senior partner as 'kemosabe'] [and the 'real' Tonto wouldn't have dreamt of such disloyalty]
The joke is old and quite well known. At the link Punchline Regularly Tossed Out Without the Jokes They Come From, 'Chanteuse' adds: 'I always heard this said, "What mean WE, white man?" ' I came across it recently in one of Trow's Maxwell novels.
answered Dec 31, 2014 at 23:20
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1You should probably add a reference/link or two to this one. To anyone who (like me) has never seen The Lone Ranger, this answer makes little sense, and the final word none at all. Commented Dec 31, 2014 at 23:47
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By failing to find it in two dictionaries, then googling it and finding it on Wikipedia… and I'm still not sure I quite get it. Answers should be self-contained at least to the extent that they give the reader access to more information about difficult or obscure elements without him having to fend for himself googling unknown entities. Commented Jan 1, 2015 at 1:30
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Strange. A Google search for "What you mean, 'We,' kemosabe?" (notice I included exterior double inverted commas just to be helpful) gives the 'World Post' explanation of the saying (and its probable origin) as the first of 50 000 purported hits. I should think it's a witticism familiar to many on the site. "False friends" is equally easy to find, which is why I didn't add the comment 'Answers should be self-contained at least to the extent that they give the reader access to more information about difficult or obscure elements without him having to fend for himself googling unknown entities'. Commented Jan 1, 2015 at 15:26
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False friends doesn’t require any further information than that given in the words themselves to understand the phrase: it is the sum of the literal meanings of false and friend. That doesn’t mean an explanation or reference shouldn’t be given; but yours is (apparently) a direct quote, and its meaning cannot be deduced simply from the words themselves, which makes it all the more relevant to include a source and an explanation. I have to admit I am quite baffled as to why you think this otherwise integral part of an SE answer does not apply here. As it is, this is not a useful answer. Commented Jan 1, 2015 at 15:56
Although not exact you may also want to consider
Left out in the cold
or
Fair weather friend
or
Dropped like a hot potato
Individual words which apply to the set of circumstances you describe are
Ostracised
