Друг только приценивался.

Here только means just or only.

So Друг только приценивался means the friend was just checking the price, only looking into it, and not doing anything more definite yet.

It often gives the sentence a minimizing or reassuring tone: he was not seriously committing himself, only feeling things out.

Приценивался comes from прицениваться.

This verb means something like:

• to check the price
• to see how much something costs
• to size up whether something is worth buying
• to shop around a bit

It is a very natural Russian verb, but English does not have one perfect one-word match. Depending on context, you might translate it as was checking the price, was pricing it up, or was just looking into the cost.

The dictionary form is прицениваться.

In this sentence, приценивался is the past tense, masculine, singular form of that verb.

So the pattern is:

• прицениваться = infinitive
• приценивался = he was checking the price / he was shopping around

This is about aspect.

• приценивался is imperfective
• приценился is perfective

The imperfective приценивался shows an ongoing, repeated, or uncompleted action. It suggests the friend was in the process of checking prices or was generally feeling out the market.

The perfective приценился would sound more like he completed that act: he checked the price and got that information.

So Друг только приценивался emphasizes the process, not a finished result.

Because прицениваться is a reflexive verb.

In Russian, -ся does not always mean a literally reflexive action like washing oneself. Very often it is just part of the normal verb form and gives the verb its standard meaning.

Here, прицениваться is simply the normal verb meaning to check prices / to size up a possible purchase. You should learn it as a whole word, not as приценивать + self.

In the Russian past tense, the verb agrees with the subject in gender and number.

The subject here is друг, which is a masculine singular noun, so the verb is also masculine singular:

• друг приценивался
• подруга приценивалась
• друзья приценивались

This is a very common feature of Russian past-tense verbs.

Because Russian has no articles.

So друг can mean:

• a friend
• the friend
• sometimes even my friend, if the context makes that clear

The sentence by itself does not tell you which English article to use. You choose that from context.

Russian often leaves out things that are already clear from context.

So Друг только приценивался can mean:

• he was just checking prices in general
• he was just checking the price of the thing already being discussed

If you want to name the thing, Russian often uses к plus the dative:

• прицениваться к машине
• прицениваться к квартире

That means something like to size up a car/apartment as a possible purchase.

Not necessarily, but it strongly suggests that at that moment he was not yet buying.

The sentence gives the idea that he was only checking prices, testing the waters, or considering the purchase. He may have bought it later, but this sentence itself presents him as still at the exploratory stage.

So the implication is:

• not committing yet
• not deciding yet
• just looking into it

Word order in Russian is flexible, but changing it changes the focus.

Друг только приценивался most naturally means:

• the friend was just checking prices

If you say Только друг приценивался, that more likely means:

• only the friend was checking prices, not someone else

So the position of только matters a lot. In your sentence, it limits the action, not the subject.

Usually друг means friend, and that is what it means here.

Advanced learners sometimes notice that друг can appear in older or literary language with the meaning suddenly, but that is a completely different use and would not fit this sentence naturally.

So in Друг только приценивался, you should read друг simply as friend.