A person, such as a family member or close friend, who is important or influential in one's life.

在某人生命中很重要的或对其生活产生很大影响的人，如家庭成员或亲密朋友。

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"I knew he would be killed--the people he was dealing with were totally criminal, " says one close friend of Listiev's.

FORBES: Godfather of the Kremlin?

With her would have come her daughter Eliza, who was eventually to marry one of Jane's brothers and become her close confidante and friend as well as both first cousin and sister-in-law.

ECONOMIST: Literary lives

He briefly served in the Johnson and Carter administrations (he was a particularly close friend of Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of Barack Obama's early backers).

ECONOMIST: Lexington