hail-fellow-well-met
Very friendly, often obnoxiously or disingenuously so. I don't think George is as nice as he seems—he just strikes me as hail-fellow-well-met. A: "I don't trust anyone who's hail-fellow-well-met like that." B: "Right? No one is just naturally that friendly." No, Kate is just genuinely a really nice, caring person—not hail-fellow-well-met.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
hail-fellow-well-met
showing excessive familiarity. 1979 Steven Levenkron The Best Little Girl in the World Harold was accustomed to hail-fellow-well-met salesmen and deferential secretaries and even irate accountants.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
hail fellow well met
On easy, congenial terms; also, superficial friendliness. This expression, which has a quintessentially Victorian ring, actually dates from the sixteenth century. Presumably it began as a greeting, but by 1550 it was being used figuratively and so appeared in Thomas Becon’s New Catechisme (“They would be ‘hail fellow well met’ with him”).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer