| 释义 |
▪ I. like, n.1|laɪk|
[f. like v.]
†1. (One's) good pleasure. (Also pl.) Obs.
a1425Cursor M. 2997 (Trin.) What haue I done aȝeyn þi like [Fairf. þe to myslike]? 1615Latham Falconry (1633) 75 Shee may doe all things at her owne likes.
†2. A liking (for). Const. of. Obs.
1589Nashe Anat. Absurd. E ij b, Being wonne to haue a fauourable like of Poets wanton lines.
3. In mod. use pl. (rarely sing.), likes (coupled with dislikes): Feelings of affection or preference for particular things; predilections.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) II. 495 She used to say, ‘It was not her likes, but her husband's, or she'd have had me back.’ 1873Black Pr. Thule xii. 180 Her odd likes and dislikes. 1889F. M. Crawford Greifenstein III. xxii. 41, I do not care a straw for his like or dislike.
▪ II. like, a., adv. (conj.), and n.2|laɪk|
Forms: α. 4–5 liche, lyche, (also 6 arch.) lich, (4 liche, 5 lych, leyge). β. 3–4 lic, 3–5 lik, 4 liik, lijc, 4–5 lijk(e, lick(e, 4–7 lyke, Sc. lyk, 5 lek(e, lyek, 6 leeke, lyeke, Sc. lyik, 4– like. Comparative. α. 3–4 licchere, lichyr, ? lecho(u)re. β. 3–4 lickor, lyckore, 4 lykker, 4–6 lyker, (Sc. -ar), 5 licker, likkir, 6– liker. Superlative. 4 lickest, 4–6 likkest, lykest, 4– likest.
[Early ME. līch, līk (? late OE. *líc), shortened form (= ON. lík-r, Sw. lik, Da. lig) of OE. ᵹelíc = OFris. gelîk, OS. gilîk (Du. gelijk), OHG. gilîh (MHG. gelîch, mod.G. gleich), ON. glík-r, Goth. galeiks:—OTeut. *galîko- f. pref. ga- (corresponding in meaning to L. com-) + *lîko- body, form; the word is thus etymologically analogous to L. conformis conform a. The OE. ᵹelíc survived into early mod.Eng. as y-like: see also alike a.
The OE. *líc yields normally līch in Southern and līk in Northern ME. The former type did not survive after the 14th c.; the prevalence of the β form may be partly due to the analogy of the comparative, where the k is normal in all dialects, though the forms with ch were not uncommon.
The inflected comparative and superlative are now rare in educated use exc. poet. or rhetorical.]
A. adj.
1. Having the same characteristics or qualities as some other person or thing; of approximately identical shape, size, colour, character, etc., with something else; similar; resembling; analogous. (In the negative phrases, there is none or nothing like ―, the adj. assumes a pregnant sense = ‘so good or wonderful as’.)
a. Const. to, unto (now arch.), north. † till, † of, with (arch.), † as.
c1200Ormin 7931 Þeȝȝre sang iss lic wiþþ wop. a1300Cursor M. 9524 And algat til his fader like [Gött. of his fader liche; Trin. his fadir liche]. Ibid. 18861 Þe tane es to þe toþer like. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. ix. 33 He..made man likkest [v.r. I-likest] to hym-self one. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 245 Þe wille of God mut nedis be good, licke to þe Fadir of hevene. c1420Chron. Vilod. st. 108 He hadde a gret hedde leyge to a gret blok. c1430Hymns Virg. 47 Lijk to him y neuere noon knewe. c1449Pecock Repr. iv. vii. 458 The..seid principal governauncis ben of lijk state, condicioun, nature, and merit with this present..principal gouernaunce. 1514Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 28 What is more folysshe, or lyker to madnesse, Than to spend the lyfe for glory, & rychesse? 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 17 A sphere of rounde fourme, like unto a Ball. 1571MS. Depos. Canterb. Cathedral Libr. xviii. lf. 60 b, You did say that one of Agnes Fullagor's children ys leeke vnto me. 16..Ballad, Mary Ambree 32 (Percy MS.) There was neuer none like to Mary Aumbree. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xxxviii. 314 It is in face like to a monkie. 1611Bible Acts xiv. 15 Wee also are men of like passions with you. 1670Baxter Cure Ch. Div. 238 You would shew yourselves much liker to God who is love, and unliker to Satan the accuser. 1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. (1736) II. 68 Are not these Shrieks like as those from a Woman in Distress? 1736Butler Anal. i. iii. 101 A state of trial..analogous or like to our moral or religious trial. 1796H. Glasse Cookery x. 161 Dried herring..should be steeped the like time as the Whiting in small beer. 1819Shelley Cenci v. iii. (Song), Sweet sleep, were death like to thee. 1859Masson Brit. Novelists ii. 94 Swift..the likest author we have to Rabelais. 1870M. Arnold Paul & Prot. 17 Laud..held, on this point, a like opinion with him. 1871Freeman Hist. Ess. Ser. ii. 97 An old Greek was a being of like passions with a modern Englishman.
b. Const. simple dative. (In early use often placed after its regimen: cf. -like suffix 1 a.) In this construction the adj. when attributive follows the n.
c1200Ormin 3572 Hire sune wass himm lic O fele kinne wise. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 5680 No licchere is broþer him was þane wolf is a lomb [v.rr. he nas no lechore his broþer: lyker, lichyr, lechoure, lyckore, lickor]. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 830–1 Whiles a man lyves he is lyke a man; When he es dede what es he lyke þan? c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 92 Ȝif Y seie, Y knowe him not, I shal be liik ȝou, a lyere. c1386Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 54 In this world was ther noon it lyche. c1400Mandeville (1839) xviii. 199 Lymons, that is a manere of Fruyt, lyche smale Pesen. c1470Golagros & Gaw. 404 Thare is na leid on life of lordschip hym like. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 84 The Parisians..like the Wethercocke be variable and inconstaunt. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. i. 39 Fooles are as like husbands, as Pilchers are to Herrings. 1710Swift Jrnl. to Stella 25 Oct., Addison's sister is a sort of a wit, very like him. 1782Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. i. 93 There was nothing like it in the philosophy of Plato. 1827Keble Chr. Y., Restor. R. Family, Be some kind spirit, likest thine, Ever at hand. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Tales xi. (1892) 446 ‘Now, uncle’, said Mr. Kitterbell, lifting up that part of the mantle which covered the infant's face,..‘Who do you think he's like?’ 1850Tennyson In Mem. lv. 4 What we have The likest God within the soul. 1854Brewster More Worlds xv. 226 The fixed stars are like our sun in every point in which it is possible to compare them.
¶ Some phrasal uses of the adj. in this construction have a special idiomatic force. The question What is he (or it) like? means ‘What sort of a man is he?’, ‘What sort of a thing is it?’, the expected answer being a description, and not at all the mention of a resembling person or thing. (Cf. what-like.) to look like (occas. to be like) sometimes means ‘to have the appearance of being’ so and so; e.g. in ‘He looks like a clever man’. (Cf. sense 7.) like that, used predicatively (perh. a Gallicism = F. comme cela): of the nature, character, or habit indicated; spec. (usu. accompanying the crossing of the speaker's fingers) as an indication that two people described are very friendly or intimate; like another [cf. Fr. comme un autre]: that is ordinary or unexceptional; that is only one of a number of similar things, possibilities, etc.
1684tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. xviii. 647 The unskilfulness of the Dissector, who was liker a Butcher than an Anatomist. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables clxxxi. (1708) 194 The Hypocrite is never so far from being a Good Christian, as when he looks Likest One. 1816J. Wilson City of Plague i. i. 124 Do not I Look, as I feel, most like thy murderer? 1835Marryat Three Cutters i, It is Lord B―; he looks like a sailor, and he does not much belie his looks. 1878Patmore Amelia, She ask'd what Millicent was like. 1889A. Lang Prince Prigio xviii. 139 He refused to keep his royal promise..! Kings are like that. 1899N. Newnham-Davis Dinners & Diners 194, I found myself wondering what an infant incubator could be like. 1904H. James Golden Bowl I. xiii. 236 Isn't the whole thing..perhaps but a way like another for their gaining time? 1926F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby ix. 206 ‘We were so thick like that in everything’—he held up two bulbous fingers—‘always together.’ 1929D. Hammett Red Harvest xxii. 219 ‘You're a friend of Whisper's?’ ‘You bet.’ He held up two thin fingers pressed tightly together. ‘Just like that, me and him.’ 1936D. Powell Turn, Magic Wheel i. 37 Theatrical people..just got here from London—they're like that with Cochrane—they know Dame Sybil Thorndike personally. 1966I. Murdoch Time of Angels xviii. 193, I suppose it's a skill like another. 1971M. Russell Deadline xv. 182 ‘Of course you had to get on terms with Gregory.’ ‘Now we're like that.’
c. In mod. use (with following dat.) often = ‘such as’, introducing a particular example of a class respecting which something is predicated.
1886Stevenson Lett. (1899) II. 41 A critic like you is one who fights the good fight, contending with stupidity. 1887Colvin Keats i. 1 A birth like that of Keats presents to the ordinary mind a striking instance of nature's inscrutability.
d. Without construction, chiefly in attributive relation: Resembling something already indicated or implied. the like: such as have been mentioned (cf. C. 3); formerly often preceded by an adj. of quantity, as † many the like. See also such-like, formerly also † such a like. For in like manner, see manner; for in like wise, see likewise.
a1300Cursor M. 6382 Of honi it had likest sauur [Gött. lickest, Fairf. likkest]. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints vi. (Thomas) 130 A lyk dreme dremyt þai bath. c1400Apol. Loll. 19 For þe honor of God, & profit of himsilf & of þe peple, wiþ mani final leful leke causis. 14..Sir Beues (MS. C.) 801 In lyke case was þe wylde bore. 1564in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. iii. iii. 166 A proclamacion of lyke substaunce & effect shall furthwith be drawen. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. vii. 29 For both to be and seeme to him was labour lich. 1591― M. Hubberd 199 Be you the Souldier, for you likest are For manly semblance, and small skill in warre. 1608Topsell Serpents (1658) 601 Solinus reporteth of such a like Wood in a part of Africa. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. 2 Wee shall finde many the like examples of such kind, or rather vnkind acceptance. Ibid. 3 An Heretike of the like stampe. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. iii. 10 Like events will follow like actions. 1711Addison Spect. No. 69 ⁋5 Hips and Haws, Acorns and Pig-nuts, with other Delicacies of the like Nature. 1840L. Hunt in Dram. Wks. Wycherley etc. Farquhar p. lxxxvii, Equally profound is..Mr. Lamb in whatever he says at all times on the like subjects. 1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. i. 5 The like working of men's minds under like conditions. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 169 They cause disease and poverty and other like evils.
e. Of two or more persons or things: Having the same or closely resembling characteristics; mutually similar; in predicative use = alike (now rare). Prov. as like as two peas: see pea n.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints iii. (Andreas) 1037 All are lyk, and ȝet..In ilke face..men fyndis diuersyte. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 14, ij lymes..þat ben lich in complexioun. c1530Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. 471 They war al goodly persones and moche lyke of stature. 1604H. Jacob Reasons Reform. 9 Al these..are exceeding divers and no way like. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 355 The two letters of b and m being in manuscripts very like. 1757E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) I. 181, I always looked upon them as twin-sisters, and so very like, that it was difficult to know one from t'other. 1832Tennyson Dream Fair Women 280 No two dreams are like. 1872Bagehot Physics & Pol. i. 21 A nation means a like body of men, because of that likeness capable of acting together. 1876Jevons Logic Prim. 9 Things which seem to be like may be different.
¶ f. Inaccurately const. dative (etc.) instead of ellipt. possessive.
(Cf. κόµαι χαρίτεσσιν ὁµοῖαι Iliad xvii. 51.)
a1300Cursor M. 18408 Quat ert þou þat es here, þat has to theif so like a chere? c1460Towneley Myst. xxv. 72 The fader voyce, oure myrthes to amende, Was made to me lyke as a man. 1567Satir. Poems Reform. iii. 169 Hir lauchter lycht be lyke to trim Thysbie. 1890Freeman in W. R. W. Stephens Life (1895) II. 414 His domestic arrangements..are rather like a steamer.
2. In phraseological and proverbial expressions.
†a. all like: in all cases the same. Obs.
1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 21 Whersomeuer one deye, the weye to the other worlde is all like.
†b. like case (advb. phr.): in the same way, likewise. Obs. exc. dial.
1534Kirton-in-Lindsey Churchw. Acc. in N.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., Paid wytsonday for ij ponde sope for weching cherche clothes iij d. Paid at lammes lyke case iii d. 1552Huloet, Like case and likewyse, idem. 1579W. A. Speciall Remedie f iij b (Roxburghe Club), Yet haue I yeelded like a coward thoe, And followed his pleasures vaine like case. 1889N.W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., Thaay chuckt th' watter tub oher, like caase thaay brok th' tap on it.
†c. Alike; in phr. share and share like, portion and portion like. Obs.
1540in R. G. Marsden Sel. Pl. Crt. Adm. (1894) 96 To be compelled to bere and pay their partes and porcions of the same averyge after the rate of their said goods porcion and porcion lyke. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables vii. 6 Every one to go share and share-like in what they took.
d. In proverbial formulæ of the type like master like man (as the master, so the man).
1548Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xxiii. 177 Beeyng lyke men lyke maister accordyng to the prouerbe. c1550Bale K. Johan (Camden) 73 Lyke Lorde, lyke chaplayne. 1611Bible Hosea iv. 9 And there shall be like people, like priest [Wyclif as the peple so the prest]. 1632Massinger City Madam i. i, Like hen, like chicken. Ibid. ii. ii, Like bitch, like whelps. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. ii. §20 Like cup, like cover. 1835Marryat Jac. Faithf. xxiii, But like mother like child, they say. 1842Tennyson Walking to Mail 55 Like men, like manners.
e. anything like, nothing like, something like: anything, nothing, something nearly as great, good, effective (etc.) as (another thing), or approaching it in size or quality. Also ellipt. something like = something like what he, it (etc.) should be, or what is desired or aimed at (chiefly colloq., and serving as an emphatic expression of satisfaction).
1666Bunyan Grace Ab. §32 My great Conversion from prodigious Profaneness to something like a Moral Life. 1702S. Parker tr. Cicero's De Finibus iv. 247 This is something-like! 1791‘G. Gambado’ Ann. Horsem. i. (1809) 67, I have had nothing like a bad fall lately. 1798Geraldina I. 176 ‘This looks something like, Sir,’ said she. 1883Manch. Exam. 22 Nov. 5/4 The Parcel Post is being conducted at a loss of something like {pstlg}10,000 a week. 1884Ibid. 17 June 4/7 There is nothing like giving a nickname to anything you wish to denounce. 1885J. Payn Talk of Town II. 117 Not that Pye is an archangel, nor anything like it. 1901Expositor Nov. 396 In the ‘Times’ the other day, a description of the largest steam-hammer yet made was headed ‘Something like a hammer’.
f. The phrases in sense e are also used adverbially, conveying the notion of an approximation to what would be expressed by the predicate (vb. or adj.) or its accompanying adv. Also ellipt. something like: in a tolerably adequate manner; † at a fairly reasonable price.
1590Shakes. Com. Err. iii. ii. 105 Anti. What complexion is she of? Dro. Swart like my shoo, but her face nothing like so cleane kept. a1620J. Dyke Serm. (1640) 379 If a man will sell a commodity, hee will sell it somewhat like, or hee will keepe it. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) VI. 241 Why this is talking somewhat like. 1782E. N. Blower Geo. Bateman III. 111 [She sits her horse] nothing like so well as you used to do. 1793Bentham Wks. (1843) x. 239 The {pstlg}600 a-year..I do not look upon as anything like adequate. 1798T. Twining Recreat. & Stud. (1882) 237 Often have I heard you something like blamed for these voluntary labours. 1851Whewell in Todhunter Acc. Writings (1876) II. 371, I have not any thing like got through the work. 1874Ruskin Fors Clav. xlvii. 253 No; not so well done; or anything like so well done.
g. Colloq. phr. (a bit) more like (it): nearer what it (etc.) should be or what is desired; better; also, closer to the truth. Cf. more adv. 1 h.
1888Kipling Phantom 'Rickshaw (1889) 81 ‘That's more like,’ said Carnehan. ‘If you could think us a little more mad we would be more pleased.’ 1891S. Weyman New Rector II. xv. 12 ‘This is better than No. 383, Mrs. Baxter?’ ‘Well, sir,..it is a bit more like.’ 1907D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 8 ‘Ah,’ said Beelzebub, ‘this is a bit more like it, a bit hotter. The Devils feel at home here.’ 1962D. Mayo Island of Sin viii. 63 Paid companion, hell. Whipping-boy was more like it. 1964A. Wilson Late Call iv. 141 Shopping in the Town Centre provided something more like, and she ambled around, taking her time. 1968P. Durst Badge of Infamy vii. 61 ‘Would you like some coffee?’ ‘Now that's more like it. Sure why not?’
3. Of a portrait, etc.: Bearing a faithful resemblance to the original. Now only pred.
1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iv. (1577) T iij a, A muche more liker Image of God are those good Princes that loue and worshippe him. 1591Spenser Tears Muses 201 All these, and all that els the Comick Stage With seasoned wit and goodly pleasaunce graced, By which mans life in his likest image Was limned forth. 1638Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 167 Those painters, that care not for making a face like, so they make it faire. 1705Hickeringill Priest-cr. ii. Wks. 1716 III. 68 Its own Picture drawn so very like, that it has not patience to behold its own Physiognomy. 1756F. Brooke Old Maid No. 36. 295, I have myself seen the camps at Clapham and in Hyde-park, and must own my Correspondent's picture of the last to be like. 1775Dk. Richmond in Burke Corr. (1844) II. 87, I believe you will think it a good and a like portrait when you see it. 1850E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 203, I got your photograph at last: it is a beastly thing: not a bit like. 1854Hawthorne Eng. Note-Bks. (1879) I. 103 It was very like and very laughable, but hardly caricatured.
4. Math. (See quot. 1706.) Now superseded by similar, exc. in like quantities and like signs.
1557Recorde Whetst. D i, When the sides of one plat forme, beareth like proportion together as the sides of any other flatte forme of the same kinde doeth, then are those formes called like flattes..and their numbers, that declare their quantities, in like sorte are named like flattes. 1660Barrow Euclid vi. iv. Schol., If in a triangle FBE there be drawn AC a parallel to one side FE, the triangle ABC shall be like to the whole FBE. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey), Like Arches or Arks (in the Projection of the Sphere) are Parts of lesser Circles that contain an equal Number of Degrees with the corresponding Arches of great Ones. Like Figures (in Geom.) are such as have their Angles equal, and the Sides about those Angles proportional. Like solid Figures, such as are comprehended under Planes that are like, and equal in Number. Ibid., Like Quantities (in Algebra), such as are expressed by the same Letters, equally repeated in each Quantity. Thus 2a and 3a, 6dd and 4dd, are like Quantities; but 2a and 3aa, and 6 f and 4 fff are unlike. Like Signs, are when both are Affirmative, or both Negative..Thus + 16 c and + 4 c, have like Signs. 1709J. Ward Introd. Math. ii. ii. §4 (1734) 154 Like Signs give + and Unlike Signs give - in the Quotient. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) I. 401/1 To add terms that are like and have like signs. 1859Barn. Smith Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6) 201.
5. Golf. (See quot.)
1887Donaldson Suppl. to Jam. s.v., When both parties have played the same number of strokes they are said to be like.
6.
†a. Apt, suitable, befitting. Chiefly predicative. Obs.
a1450Cov. Myst. xl. (Shaks. Soc.) 394 This observaunce is most like you to do dewly, Wherfore tak it upon you, brother, we pray. 1477Paston Lett. III. 196 An C li...is no money lyek for syche a joyntore as is desyred of my son. 1592C'tess Shrewsbury in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. III. 167 They are the likest instruments to put a bad matter in execution.
b. Characteristic of; such as one might expect from.
1667Pepys Diary 4 Apr., It was pretty to hear the Duke of Albemarle himself to wish that they would come on our ground, meaning the French, for that he would pay them..; which was like a general, but not like an admiral. 1703Rules of Civility 98 That would be liker a Drunkard than a Gentleman. 1711Swift Jrnl. to Stella 8 Sept., It is like your Irish politeness, raffling for tea-kettles. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge xxvii, It would be like his impudence..to dare to think of such a thing.
7. predicatively, in certain idiomatic uses, chiefly with the vbs. feel, look, sound:
†a. With gerund as regimen: Having the appearance of (doing something).
b. Giving promise of (doing something); indicating the probable presence of (something).
c. colloq. In recent use (orig. U.S.), to feel like: to have an inclination for, be in the humour for.
1654–66Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 690 They look'd rather like going to triumph after a Victory, than to win one. 1741Lady Pomfret Corr. (1805) III. 30 The music..sounds so like being accompanied by an organ, that [etc.]. 1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. III. 2 The Forty Colonies..are all pretty like rebelling just now. 1863R. B. Kimball Was he successful? ii. xii. 278 He did not feel like returning to his solitary room with his mind unsettled. 1868Yates Rock Ahead II. 245 Wooded uplands suggested good cover-shooting; broad expanse of heath looked very like rabbits. 1894Du Maurier Trilby (1895) 111 Bother work this morning! I feel much more like a stroll in the Luxembourg Gardens.
8. In accordance with appearances, probable, likely. Now only dial.
c1375Barbour Bruce xvi. 324 It wes weill lik..That he mycht haff conquerit..The land of Irland. c1400Destr. Troy 10440 Hit was not lik þat þe lede..Shuld haue killit þis kyng. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 17 Thynges incredible and not lyke [L. incredibilia..et non verisimilia]. 1541Wyatt Defence Wks. (1861) p. xxxiii, It was not like that I should get the Knowledge being in Spain. 1545Brinklow Compl. ii. (1874) 14 Who hath the vantage, God knowyth; wether the King, or..the officers..which is most lykest. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iv. iii. 45 Is it not like that I..run mad? 1603― Meas. for M. v. i. 104. c 1635 W. Scot Apol. Narr. (Wodrow Soc.) 27, I know not if it came to Mr. Knox befor his death..as it is like it did. 1664Butler Hud. ii. iii. 835 And is it like they have not still In their old Practices some skill? a1717Bp. O. Blackall Wks. (1723) I. 560 He only desired time, and would, 'tis like, have been able to pay thee. 1733E. Erskine Serm. Wks. 1871 II. 152 The temple where it is like Isaiah got the manifestation. 1816Scott Antiq. xv, ‘It's like we maun wait then till the gudeman comes hame’.
9. predicatively, const. to with inf.:
a. That may reasonably be expected to (do, etc.), likely to. Now somewhat rare in literary use; still common colloq.
a1300Cursor M. 3452 Hir lijf was lickest to be ded. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 372 It is ful like for to stonde in þe same wise wiþ-in a few ȝeris in ynglonde. c1400Destr. Troy 2254 Licker at þe last end in langore to bide. c1420Pallad. on Husb. vi. 199 For that [brik] is maad in somer heete To sone is drie, and forto chyne is like. 1508Dunbar Poems iv. 11 Now dansand mirry, now like to dee. 1573Tusser Husb. xxxv. (1878) 82 Those of the fairest and likest to thriue. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. v. 187 My graue is like to be my wedding bed. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 224 Lay a good foundation, and then the superstructure is like to stand. 1704Swift Batt. Bks. Misc. (1711) 239 Discovering how high the Quarrel was like to proceed. a1715Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 368 A man much liker to spoil business than to carry it on dextrously. a1806C. J. Fox Jas. II (1808) 194 He thought himself like to get rid of them. 1873Ruskin Fors Clav. IV. xlviii. 268 But we are in hard times, now, for all men's wits; for men who know the truth are like to go mad from isolation. 1886E. L. Bynner A. Surriage iii. 34 The two or three places I am like to have business relations with. 1896A. E. Housman Shropsh. Lad xxii, Such leagues apart the world's ends are, We're like to meet no more.
b. (Now colloq. or dial.) Apparently on the point of. Sometimes (? by anacoluthon) with ellipsis of the vb. substantive, so that like becomes = ‘was (or were) like’ (now chiefly U.S., colloq.). Also in confused use, had like to (for was like to), chiefly with perf. inf.: = ‘had come near to, narrowly missed (―ing)’. (A further grammatical confusion appears in the form had liked to: see like v.2 2 b.)
c1560Wriothesley Chron. (1875) II. 135 Wherefore that plee would not serve, and so [they] had like to haue had judgment without triall. 1565J. Sparke in Hawkins' Voy. (1878) 26 Which had like to haue turned vs to great displeasure. 1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 80 That he had like to have knockt his head against the gallowes. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. iv. 48, I haue had foure quarrels, and like to haue fought one. 1657W. Rand tr. Gassendi's Peiresc i. 20 And these digressions..had like to cost him dear. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. (1824) I. xx. 367 After the treaty had been like to have been broken off. 1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. (1736) IV. 160 She advanced toward the Land of Coquetry, and like to have arrived there. 1711Steele Spect. No. 78 ⁋4 The young Lady was amorous, and had like to have run away with her Father's Coachman. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 28, I had like to murder poor Mr. Vindex. 1808L. Summer in Southern Hist. Mag. (1892) I. 52 Strother was 150 votes behind Roberts & like to have lost his election in consequence of his opposing Madison. 1823Scott Quentin D. ii, The eldest man seemed like to choke with laughter. 1826― Jrnl. I. 124, I had like to have been too hasty. 1830in Jrnl. Illinois State Hist. Soc. (1930–1) XXIII. 214 The boat went under a tree top and like to took me off. 1836F. A. Chardon Jrnl. Fort Clark (1932) 70 Michael Belhumeres horse fell with him, had like to have broken his neck. 1853Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 241, I am like to cry whenever I think of her. 1854in Southwestern Hist. Q. (1931–2) XXXV. 217 The supper—I had like to have said table-spread, for I can call it by no other name—it is a dirty old wagon cover sp[r]ead on the ground. 1855in Calif. Hist. Soc. Q. (1929) VIII. 340 Like to never got back myself. 1873Ruskin Fors Clav. xxvii. 7, I had like to have said something else. 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xxxix. 396 We like to got a hornet's nest, but we didn't. 1889‘C. E. Craddock’ Despot of Broomsedge Cove xviii. 327 That's what like to have happened to me. 1916‘B. M. Bower’ Phantom Herd vi. 100, I like to died a-laughing. 1930G. B. Johnson in B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore (1949) iv. iii. 608 ‘I like to have got killed’ means ‘I almost got killed’. It is surprising how many phrases used by Negroes are exactly the phrases used by English folk. 1973Black World Apr. 63 Damn brim like to covered broad street.
c. dial. (north. and north midland): Constrained, obliged, having no option but to (do so-and-so). Also with ellipsis of the inf. (Cf. fain.)
1828Trial W. Dyon at York Assizes 11, I promised him I would not tell: I was like for fear of losing my life. Mod. (Sheffield) You'll be like to let him have his own way.
10. Comb., as like-minded (whence likemindedness), like-natured, like-seeming, like-shaped, like-sized adjs.
1526Tindale Rom. xv. 5 That ye be *lyke mynded won towardes another. 1841E. Miall in Nonconf. I. 248 Sir Robert Peel will find thousands likeminded with us. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men I. iv. 381 They were devoted to one another, inseparable, and entirely like-minded.
1638Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. 120 Our *like-mindedness..must be according to Christ Jesus.
1579Fulke Heskins's Parl. 192 That this rude and earthly body by a *like natured taste, touching, and meate, should be brought to immortalitie. 1839Bailey Festus (1852) 26 Like-natured with them.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. iii. 26 By his *like-seeming shield her knight by name Shee weend it was.
1897Daily News 5 Feb. 11/1 *Like-shaped and *like-sized balls.
b. In proposed mathematical terms: † like-jamb, a parallelogram; † like-side, a rhombus.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Defin., Those squares which haue their sides al equal, may be called..likesides,..and those that haue only the contrary sydes equal,..those wyll I call likeiammys, for a difference.
B. adv. (quasi-prep., conj.).
1. a. In or after the manner of; in the same manner or to the same extent as; as in the case of. Const. as in A. 1 a, b: also rarely, † const. after. Also (const. dat.), in the manner characteristic of. like that: in that manner (cf. A. 1 b ¶ ).
a1300Cursor M. 5133 Þai com ham noght as prisuns like [Gött. lick, Trin. liche] Bot als þai war knigthes rik. 1370Robt. Cicyle 58 He rode non odur lyke. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 253 Þan schulden prestis lyue lich to angels. c1386Chaucer Prol. 590 His top was dokked lyk a preest biforn. ― Frankl. T. 517 Phebus wax old, and hewed lyke latoun. c1400Destr. Troy 1613 Rome..Tild vpon Tiber after Troy like. 1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 187 Floenge like to the water, ȝiffenge place like to the aier. c1500Lancelot 3170 Ful lyk o knycht one to the feld he raid. 1508Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 174 Ay loungand, lyk ane loikman on ane ledder. ― Tua mariit Wemen 273, I hatit him like a hund. c1590Marlowe Faust. xi. (1604) E 2, Like an asse as I was, I would not be ruled by him. 1594T. Bedingfield tr. Machiavelli's Florent. Hist. (1595) 221 The disorder of his ministers (who liued liker Princes, then priuate men). c1600Shakes. Sonn. xxix, Featur'd like him, like him with friends possest. 1601― Twel. N. v. i. 275 Thou neuer should'st loue woman like to me. 1654Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Warrs Flanders 133 Fearing their Town would fare like Oudwater. 1713Addison Guardian No. 97 ⁋1 This..is using a man like a fool. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §23 Working like moles under ground. 1779F. Burney Diary & Lett. (1842–6) I. 256 She sings like her, laughs like her, talks like her. 1821Keats Lamia i. 49 Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard. 1854A. Jameson Bk. of Th. (1877) 270 A lecture should not read like an essay. 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 1 The name of Voltaire will stand out like the names of the great decisive movements in the European advance. 1872Punch 2 Mar. 88/2 What was the use of his talking like that? 1879McCarthy Donna Quixote xxi, But I never was good like that.
b. In colloquial phrases denoting vigour or rapidity of action, as like anything, like a shot, like fun, like blazes, etc.
1681T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 48 (1713) II. 53 He storms and sputters like ―Jest. What I prithee? Earn. Why—like any think. 1695Congreve Love for L. v. iv. (ed. 2) 76, I have been looking up and down for you like any thing. 1778F. Burney Evelina xxi. (1784) 157 All the people in the pit are without hats, dressed like anything. 1848Like fun [see fun n. 1 b]. 1872L. Carroll Through Looking-gl. 73 They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand. 1885Illustr. Lond. News 18 Apr. 392/3 If she doesn't know anything about it, she'll say so like a shot.
c. to know or read (someone or something) like a book: to know very well, understand perfectly; to speak or talk like a book: (a) to talk elegantly; to use literary or pedantic language in conversation; (b) to speak knowledgeably and accurately. colloq.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. xxvi. 444 I can.. read you off, like a book. 1829Mass. Spy 28 Jan. (Th.), You talk like a book, Mr. Bond. 1833J. Neal Down-Easters 26 An educated and travelled Yankee..talking like a book, even to his washerwoman. 1839‘H. Franco’ Adventures H. Franco I. xi. 73 ‘Know him like a book,’ replied Mr. Lummucks. 1843W. T. Thompson Major Jones' Chron. Pineville 74, I knows the Curloos like a book. 1844T. C. Haliburton Attaché 2nd Ser. II. 176 Let a man or woman come and talk to me..and I'll tell you all about 'em right off as easy as big print. I can read 'em like a book. 1853Lytton My Novel II. vii. xxi. 281 ‘If you can contrive to affect to be angry with him for his extravagance, it will do good.’ ‘You speak like a book, and I'll try my best.’ 1875[see speak v. 1 d]. 1933Wodehouse Mulliner Nights 101 That terrible old woman saw through my subterfuge last night. She read me like a book. 1940H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood i. i. 25 Don't you talk like a book, Mr. Jimmy... Don't you go using long words. 1960Sunday Times 27 Nov. 11 ‘Speaks Welsh like a book, the professor’—and, what's more, he also writes it like a book though he learnt it late in life.
d. N. Amer. colloq. Followed by an adj.: in the manner of one who is ―. Cf. like crazy (crazy a. 4 c), like mad (mad a. 1 c). Also in less analysable constructions.
1959She May 21/2 Like wow{ddd}wonderful. 1961G. Smith Business of Loving xi. 231 Sometimes we get rather soppy about each other..and laugh like young. 1962[see blow v.1 14 e]. 1970Time 31 Aug. 19 Afterward, a girl came up to me and said, ‘You kinda look interested in this; did you know there are civil rights for women?’ And I thought like wow, this is for me.
2. = alike.
a. In a like degree; equally. Now arch. or poet. (only qualifying an adj. or adv.).
1340–70Alex. & Dind. 105 Whan eueri lud liche wel lyuede up-on erþe. c1384Chaucer H. Fame i. 10 Why this [is] a dreme, why that it swevene And noght to euery man lyche euene. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xvii. 20 Men of grete welþe, And liche witty and wys. c1400Rom. Rose 4160 It was al liche longe & wyde. c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 158 Whanne þat alle þe brawnys traueilen liche myche. 1496Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) i. xxvii. 64/2 The sonne in hymselfe is alwaye atte one and shyneth alwaye all lyke. 1584Cogan Haven Health cxxxi. (1636) 131 [Mutton] is..not like good in all places in England. 1611Shakes. Cymb. iii. iii. 41 Subtle as the Fox for prey, Like warlike as the Wolfe, for what we eate. 1650Trapp Comm. Num. xxi. 1 In our late troubles, it was a like difficult thing, to finde among our enemies, a wicked man in their prisons, or a godly man out of them. 1695Hickeringill Lay-Clergy Wks. 1716 I. 326 That other like ill-advised expression. 1812Byron Ch. Har. i. xvii, Hut and palace show like filthily. 1839Bailey Festus (1852) 337 All His gifts Like wondrous, like unlimited, like fair, As when the wind first blew.
†b. In like manner. Obs. rare.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 317 b (marg.), Quoque the coniunction, & coce the vocatiue of cocus, souned both like in Cicero his tyme. 1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 107 To shote compasse, to draw euermore lyke, to lowse euermore lyke.
†3. Followed by an adj. or adjectival phrase: In the manner of one who (or that which) is ―. Obs. exc. in like mad (see mad a.).
1500–20Dunbar Poems xix. 19 Ȝon man is lyke out of his mynd. 1596Spenser F.Q. iv. x. 56 All looking on, and like astonisht staring. 1682Creech tr. Lucretius (1683) 87 The look is vivid still, nor seems like dead, Till every Particle of Soul is fled. 1801tr. Gabrielli's Myst. Husb. III. 211 Being his tenant, he was like in his power.
†4. In accordance with, according to. Obs.
1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 131 And to ham yeue thow lyke har deserte. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 14281 The ffox, lyk hys entente, Took the chese, and forth he wente. c1430― Chichev. & Byc. ii. Min. Poems 130 These bestis..Be fatte, or leene..Like lak, or plente, of theyr vitaile. ― Reas. & Sens. 5784 Arrayed lyche to hir degre. a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1622) 209 She..vsed him much liker his birth, then his fortune.
5. like as.
a. Introducing a clause: In the same way as, even as; (just) as if. Also, like as if (now somewhat rare, occas. † like as and).
c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 368 Þai cowde not schake away þis bonde by a contrari glose, lijke as oure prestis kan nowe. c1450Merlin iii. 41 He..tolde hym alle thynges like as were beffalle. 1457in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 298 The pleyntif shall declare..licke as the defendant were present. 1523Fitzherb. Surv. xiii. (1539) 31 Lyke as and it were extortion. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 139 b, Lyke as whan the wyndowe is opened, the..beames of the sonne foloweth in..so [etc.]. 1535Coverdale Ps. cii[i]. 13 Like as a father pitieth his owne children, euen so is the Lord mercifull vnto them that feare him. 1609Holland Amm. Marcell. 53 Hee came to Augustudunum aforesaid; like as if he had beene a leader of long continuance. 1611Bible Job v. 26. 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle iv. 1235 And now our lawes for Mammons cursed golde Like as at open mart are bought and solde. 1691tr. Emilianne's Frauds Rom. Monks (ed. 3) 194 They are all of dry'd Flesh, like as her Heart is. 1717Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 347 Likeas the Synod did, and hereby do, approve thereof. 1799Coleridge Lett. (1895) 272, I held the letter in my hand like as if I was stupid. 1881Forgan Golfer's Handbk. 34 Like-as-we-lie, when both parties have played the same number of strokes. 1888W. E. Henley Bk. Verses, In Hospital vi, Likeas a flamelet blanketed in smoke, So through the anæsthetic shows my life.
b. With ellipsis of the vb. of the clause. Obs. exc. poet.
c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon ix. 222 Lete vs goo there like as prue and worthy knyghtes. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xi. 5 For as thow come sa sall thow pass, Lyk as ane schadow in ane glass. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (1858) II. 34 Thair semelie schroud likeas siluer schene. 1559Abp. Hethe Speech in Parlt. 21 Feb. in Strype Ann. Ref. I. App. vi. 9 Kinge Davyd did..leappe before the arke of God, lyke as his other subjectes. 1704J. Pitts Acc. Mahometans viii. (1738) 149 They travel four Cammels in a breast..tied one after the other, like as in Teams. 1800Coleridge Piccolom. iv. i, She's now rising: Like as a sun, so shines she in the east.
6. Used as conj.: = ‘like as’, as. Now generally condemned as vulgar or slovenly, though examples may be found in many recent writers of standing.
This use originated partly in an ellipsis of as or an extension of the quasi-prepositional function of the adv. (sense 1) to govern a clause instead of a n., and partly in an anacoluthic use (somewhat common in the 16th c.) by which the n. or pronoun which is primarily a dative governed by like is used as the subj. or obj. of a following clause. A good example of this anacoluthon (but with to instead of simple dative) is the following: 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. iv. 42 Like to an Eagle, in his kingly pride Soring through his wide Empire of the aire..by chaunce hath spide A Goshauke.
a. Introducing an unabridged clause.
c1530Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. 520 Ye have said lyke a noble lady ought to say. 1531Elyot Gov. iii. viii, Lyke an excellent Phisitioun cureth moste daungerous diseases, so doth a man that is valyant [etc.]. 1608Shakes. Per. i. i. 163 Like an arrow shot from a well experienst Archer hits the marke his eye doth leuell at. 1658A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. iii. xix. 280 The patient still moveth the wounded joint, like the jack of a watch doth move. 1715M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 253 To act like Judith did with Holofernes. 1792Southey Lett. (1856) I. 12 He talks like Brunswick did. 1866Darwin in Life & Lett. III. 58 Unfortunately few have observed like you have done. 1867H. Maudsley Phys. & Path. Mind 18 They are strange and startling, like the products of a dream ofttimes are, to the mind which has actually produced them. 1869Bonamy Price Princ. Currency v. 162 Is the demand of the cotton and of the iron for money so real and specific, that the coin is produced, like wine is produced in bottles for the drinkers who desire to drink wine? 1873Morris in Mackail Life (1899) I. 301 Dreading the model day like I used to dread Sunday. 1882J. C. Morison Macaulay (1889) 169 Those assemblies were not wise like the English parliament was. 1886J. K. Jerome Idle Thoughts (1889) 5 Did he [Robinson Crusoe] wear trousers? I forget. Or did he go about like he does in the pantomime? 1941Coast to Coast 192 She made a challenge of it, like she always does. 1961Word Study Apr. 7/1 Like I said... The Beatnik School of Language Degradation must be responsible for the sudden mushrooming of the above expression. 1966New Yorker 10 Dec. 149 Murray the K tells it like it really is. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 34 (Advt.), Send for your copy now. Like we said, it's free. 1973New Society 6 Dec. 608/1 His successors can build their modest, unpretentious monuments, like the British have been doing for years. 1974‘E. Lathen’ Sweet & Low xviii. 174 Like I said, it was one o'clock... Everybody claims they were asleep.
b. Introducing a clause with vb. suppressed.
Many apparent instances of this use may belong to 1, what is suppressed being a pple. or adj. and not a vb.
1604T. Wright Passions (1620) 194 Did not David thirst after thee, like the thirstie hart the fountaines of cleaere water? 1654–66Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 219 Do not you think me past recovery, and in that faith, do like Physitians to Patients, which are so, permit them anything? 1803Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1804) 140 The servants..stare upon me like the deer On Selkirk, in Fernandez. 1839Bailey Festus (1852) 129 Ere yet we have shed our locks like trees their leaves.
c. Followed by a noun or pron. (virtually the subj. or obj. of a suppressed clause) or a phrase.
15..Smyth & his Dame i. 54 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 203, I sawe hym never wyth myne eye That could werke lyke I. 1723Pres. State Russia I. 343 They are not kept in Fish-pools and Stews, like in other Places. 1749Smollett Gil Blas (1797) I. 120 A few who like thou and I drink nothing but water. 1833J. H. Newman Lett. (1891) I. 324 Stalls, like in cathedrals. 1840W. Irving in Life & Lett. (1866) III. 155 There is more of morning visiting, like in country life in England. 1895A. B. Balfour 1200 Miles in Waggon ix. 98 The strain is causing opening of the boards like in a ship after a storm. 1896Daily News 24 Oct. 7/4 Snow..is descending in thick flakes like in January.
†d. As well as: as also. Obs. rare.
1594Shakes. Rich. III, iii. v. 9 Gastly Lookes Are at my seruice, like enforced Smiles. 1663Gerbier Counsel e v a, You that know what good Building is both by a Genius..infused into your spirit, like by your particular applications to all things answerable thereunto.
e. As if, ‘like as’. Also (now dial.) as like.
1493Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 89 b, To..bere a candell brennynge in procession [on Candlemas Day] as lyke they wente bodely with our lady. c1530Ld. Berners Arthur Lyt. Bryt. 338 He was bygge and hye above all other, and coloured like the rede rose had been set on the whyte lyly. 1860in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 3) 244 The old fellow drank of the brandy like he was used to it. 1886Harper's Mag. June 109/2 None of them act like they belonged to the hotel. 1895J. Prior Renie xvii. 191 'E made a noise like 'e were sorry or summat. 1898H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier 100, I sprung from the chair like a man had shot me through the head. 1932T. S. Eliot Sweeney Agonistes 30 When you're alone in the middle of the bed and you wake like someone hit you on the head. 1940W. Faulkner Hamlet i. i. 7 For a while it looked like I was going to get shut of it. Ibid. ii. 52 It seemed like we begun to hear it right away. 1969Observer (Colour Suppl.) 23 Mar. 23/2 They look at me like I'm dirt. 1973‘H. Howard’ Highway to Murder vii. 76 That sounded like I was being left to hold the baby.
7. dial. and vulgar. Used parenthetically to qualify a preceding statement: = ‘as it were’, ‘so to speak’. Also, colloq. (orig. U.S.), as a meaningless interjection or expletive.
1778F. Burney Evelina II. xxiii. 222 Father grew quite uneasy, like, for fear of his Lordship's taking offence. 1801tr. Gabrielli's Myst. Husb. III. 252 Of a sudden like. 1815Scott Guy M. vi, The leddy, on ilka Christmas night..gae twelve siller pennies to ilka puir body about, in honour of the twelve apostles like. 1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 179 In an ordinar way like. 1838Lytton Alice ii. iii, If your honour were more amongst us, there might be more discipline like. 1840–41De Quincey Style ii. Wks. 1862 X. 224 ‘Why like, it's gaily nigh like to four mile like’. 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. I. 112 Might I be so bold as just to ax, by way of talk like, if [etc.]. 1911A. Bennett Hilda Lessways i. vi. 49 He hasn't passed his examinations like... He has that Mr. Karkeek to cover him like. 1929‘H. Green’ Living vi. 57 'E went to the side like and looked. 1950Neurotica Autumn 45 Like how much can you lay on [i.e. give] me? 1961New Statesman 22 Sept. 382/2 ‘You're a chauvinist,’ Danny said. ‘Oh, yeah. Is that bad like?’ 1966Lancet 17 Sept. 635/2 As we say pragmatically in Huddersfield, ‘C'est la vie, like!’ 1971[see fighting chance s.v. fighting vbl. n. 3 b]. 1971Black Scholar Apr.–May 26/1 Man like the dude really flashed his hole card. 1973Black Panther 17 Nov. 9/4 What will be the contradictions that produce further change? Like, it seems to me that it would be virtually impossible to avoid some contradictions.
8. Likely, probably. Rare exc. in phr. like enough, very like, (as) like as not (colloq. or dial.).
1563–83Foxe A. & M. II. 1219/1 Some sayd it was his wife, some sayd the keeper. Like inough (my lord) quoth Symons, for he is one of the same sort. 1610Shakes. Temp. v. i. 265 Will money buy em? Ant. Very like. 1611― Cymb. v. v. 259 Most like I did. 1681Hickeringill Black Non-Conf. Postscr., Wks. 1716 II. 169 He may fire a Canon, and kill a Friend as like as an Enemy. 1749Fielding Tom Jones vii. ix, ‘Like enough,’ cries the 'squire, ‘it may be so in London.’ 1823Bentham Not Paul 285 When I was yet with you I told you these things. Like enough. 1883Stevenson Treas. Isl. iii. xiv, Like enough, to judge from the sound, his back was broken on the spot. 1890‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 321, I was much deceived in them... Very like... It takes a smart man to be up to chaps of their sort. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 479/2 The players, like as not, handling the ribbons. 1898G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 29 No more at midway heaven, but liker, midway to the pit.
†9. As if about to. (Cf. A. 9 b.) Obs.
c1530Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. 143 The paleys trembled like to haue gone all to peces.
10. Comb., as like fashioned (adj.), like-feelingly (adv.), like-made, like-persuaded (adjs.); like-dealers, the designation assumed by certain pirates about 1400.
1401Petition to Hen. IV in Rymer Fœdera (1709) VIII. 193 Publicos Dei & omnium Mercatorum bonorum Inimicos, Pyratas, alio Vocabulo Likedelers Nominatos. 1540Coverdale Fruitful Less. (1593) M m 4, Yet is God of this nature, that he maketh his chosen to bee like fashioned vnto the image of his sonne. 1621Lady M. Wroth Urania 489 Wedded to a vow I made to one, whose breach of his like-made-one to me cannot yet vnmarry me. 1691Norris Pract. Disc. 57 The warm influence of a like-persuaded Princes Favour. 1839Bailey Festus xxxvi. (1848) 363 He Yet feels the frailties of the things He has made And therefore can, like-feelingly, judge them. [1849Sidonia Sorc. II. 144 That brotherhood who..lived like brothers amongst themselves, dividing all goods alike, so that they were called ‘Like-dealers’. (These Like-dealers were the Communists of the Northern Middle Ages.)]
C. absol. and n.
1. With qualifying poss. pron. or its analogue: Counterpart, equal, match, analogue, etc.
Sometimes in pl., (his, etc.) likes, though a collective or typical sing. often occurs where a pl. might be used.
a1300Floriz & Bl. 483 (Hausknecht) Faire hi habbe here in inome At on palais, nas non his liche. c1374Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 76 Of trouth is ther non her lich Of all these wymmen. c1400Sowdone Bab. 44 Whan ffrith and felde wexen gaye, And every wight desirith his like. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lvii. 193 His lyke is not in al y⊇ world. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Nov. 40 Her like shee has not left behinde. 1597J. King On Jonas (1618) 65 Socrates was a man excellent for humane wisdome, the like to whom could not be found among thousands of men. 1602Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 188. 1618 Bolton Florus iv. xii. (1636) 321 A man of a barbarous blunt wit, but which did well enough among his likes. 1656Earl of Monmouth Boccalini's Advt. fr. Parnass. 105 He rendred his Family as famous..as the like of the greatest Princes. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 418. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. iv. (ed. 2) 55 Producing their like, without understanding or design. 1847Tennyson Princess vi. 321 Pass, and mingle with your likes. 1875Whitney Life Lang. ii. 13 When he first begins to employ preterits and plurals and their like. 1879J. Grant in Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 96/1 Two men, whose like will scarcely ever be found in the world.
2. Something considered in respect of its likeness to something else; an instance of similarity; chiefly in proverbial expressions, as: like (will) to like, like draws to like, like begets like, etc.; like for like; like cures like.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 543 Lyk to lyk accordis wele. Ibid. xii. (Mathias) 134 Lyk to lyk drawis ay. 1470–85Malory Arthur ix. xxxi, A good knyght wylle fauoure another and lyke wille drawe to lyke. 1528Paynel Salerne's Regim. (1535) 68 b, Lyke ioyned to lyke maketh one the more furious. 1539Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 8 Lyke wyll to lyke. 1581J. Derricke Image Irel. ii. F j b, marg., Like vnto like saide the Deuill to the Collier. 1591Spenser M. Hubberd 48 The Foxe and th' Ape..determined to seeke Their fortunes farre abroad, lyeke with his lyeke. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. ii. ii. 128 Euery like is not the same. 1607W. Sclater Funeral Serm. (1629) 2 Illustrated by a comparison of likes. 1631Gouge God's Arrows iii. lx. 296 In case of talio, or requiting like for like. 1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter iii. 10. 1304 No like is the same; Similitude and Identitie are different things. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables ccccxix. 395 Two Likes may be mistaken. 1696Tryon Misc. i. 4 Every Like works upon its Likeness. 1842Tennyson Walking to Mail 55 Like breeds like, they say. ― Two Voices 357 For those two likes might meet and touch. 1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. iii. ii. 61 Only like can know like.
3. a. the like: something or anything similar; the same kind of thing.
Now chiefly in negative contexts, as ‘I never saw the like.’
1553Eden Decades (Arb.) 375 Sum doo wysshe he had doonne the lyke by theyrs. 1556Robinson tr. More's Utop. (Arb.) 77 margin, The verie like in England in the riuer of Thamys. 1588Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 388 Which is the like as we have said of the kingdome of China. 1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. i. 70. 16.. Ballad, Mary Ambree 79 (Percy MS.) The like in my liffe I neuer did see. 1606G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine iv. 21 The like to this may be accounted of the continuall fire burning in the mountaine of ætna. a1626Bacon New Atl. (1900) 34 His Under Garments were the like that we saw him weare in the Chariott. 1678Wanley Wond. Lit. World v. i. §87. 467/1 Henry the seventh..having composed matters in Germany..hastened to do the like in Italy. 1772–84Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1242 The drops were such as no experienced seaman on board had seen the like. 1820Shelley Œdipus ii. i. 85 She never can commit the like again. 1878Simpson Sch. Shaks. I. 35 It is confessed that Hawkins and Cobham were meant to be buccaneers, and it is absurd to deny the like of Stucley.
†b. Preceded by any, many, other. Obs.
1573G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 7, I prai you let this on suffice in stead of a mani the like. a1592H. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 97 As for these objections, or any the like. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. 118 Had not Q. Curtius or some other like..revived the remembrance of him. 1631T. Powell Tom All Trades (1876) 145 And very many other the like.
c. and the like, or the like: a formula used to avoid further enumeration of an indicated class; = ‘and so forth’. See also such-like.
1592West 1st Pt. Symbol. §100 With these words following, or the like in effect. 1612Bacon Ess., Studies (Arb.) 13 Bowling is good for the Stone and Raines; Shooting for the longs and breast; gentle walking for the stomacke; riding for the head; and the like. 1657–83Evelyn Hist. Relig. (1850) I. 3 Everybody agrees that there is in our very nature sentiments of right and wrong; to do as we would be done by;..to clothe our bodies, and the like. 1711Steele Spect. No. 155 ⁋1 In travelling together in the same hired Coach, sitting near each other in any publick Assembly, or the like. 1773Mrs. Chapone Improv. Mind (1774) II. 43 If you have any acquired talent..such as music, painting, or the like. 1833S. Austin Charact. Goethe I. ii. 30 Questions concerning time, space, mind, matter, God, immortality, and the like. 1852Gladstone Glean. (1879) IV. 146 The mundane, earthy, instruments of taxation, police, soldiery..and the like.
†d. Used as a mere demonstrative pronoun: = that or those (followed by of). Obs. rare.
1650Earl of Monmouth tr. Senault's Man bec. Guilty 146, I doubt not but that 'twas ambition which kept Scipio chast, that was the sweetnesse of glory which charmed the like of Pleasure. 1653Nissena 145 He had changed his love affections into the like of Friendship, or rather of obsequiousness. 1654Earl of Monmouth tr. Bentivoglio's Warrs Flanders 214 His death was accompanied by the like of Orange.
e. the like(s of (rarely to): such a person or thing as; now often depreciatory. colloq.
1637Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 384 Many of God's children beleiue that there is something in a broken reed the like of me. 1787Minor 171 Never more presume for to speak to the likes of me. 1825Cobbett Rur. Rides 185, I never saw, nor heard of the like of this before. 1826Jas. Mill in Westm. Rev. VI. 270 The like of which exists in no other spot on the surface of the earth. 1850Mrs. Carlyle Lett. II. 137 This is the best school that the like of me was ever put to. 1872Browning in Life & Lett. (1891) 292 The second edition is in the press,..2,500 in five months is a good sale for the likes of me. 1894Du Maurier Trilby (1895) 210 Are there no harems still left in Stamboul for the likes of thee to sweep and clean?
4. Golf. (See quot. 1881.)
1863Macm. Mag. Sept. VIII. 411/2 The Captain hookit his ba' into the Principal's Nose, and the Laird lay snug on the green at the like. 1878‘Capt. Crawley’ Football etc. 89 (Golf) The reckoning of the game is made by the terms odds and like, and one more, two more, &c. 1881Forgan Golfer's Handbk. 35 If your opponent has played one stroke more than you—i.e., ‘the odd’, your next stroke will be ‘the like’.
†5. Likelihood, probability. Obs. rare—1.
1609Yonge Diary 19 There is like of war between them.
6. In phrases formed with preps.
†a. with like: as is (was, etc.) fitting, in a fitting manner. Obs.
c1200Ormin 8190 Þatt oþerr follc all ȝede bun, Swa summ itt birrþ, wiþþ like. a1240Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 285 Ihesu þus tu faht for me aȝaines mine sawle fan þu me derennedes wið like.
†b. in like (also Sc. in to like), in liche: = alike. Also, without change. Obs.
13..etc. [see inlike]. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 210 His ryk Þat euire lestis in to lyk. Ibid. xxxv. (Thadee) 70 His ryke Is stedfaste lestand ay in lyke. c1430Syr. Tryam. 1571 Hedd and fete lay bothe in lyke, To grounde was he caste! 1540R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) U ij, She..which ought to count all in like faire & foul, saving her husband. a1555Ridley Pit. Lament. (1566) B v b, All sped in lyke. 1557Paynel Barclay's Jugurth 75 His ennemies and his owne subiectes he dreeded and suspected both in lyke and after one maner.
†c. of (a) like, by (the) like: probably, belike.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 337 b, Harpalus (who by like had a good insight in suche matiers). 1570–6Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 215 In which respect (of like) he gave to the hundreth, the name of the same Towne. 1573G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 50 Of a like thai purpose to pluck Jupiter out of heaven. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. III. 24/2 King William..conceiued displeasure against Urban..and alledged by the like, that no..bishop within his realme should haue respect..to anie pope. 1579[see belike]. 1605Verstegan Dec. Intell. iv. (1628) 89 The white rocks or clifs (by like about Douer).
▪ III. like, v.1|laɪk|
Forms: 1–2 lícian, 2–3 likie(n, 3 lykyen, 3–5 li-, lyken, -i(n, -y(n, (4 likke, lykky), 4–7 lyke, Sc. and north. lik, (5 lykey, lijk, leke), 6–7 leeke, (7 lyk), 4– like. Also y-like.
[OE. lícian = OFris. likia, OS. lîkôn (Du. lijken), OHG. lîhhên, lîchên, ON. líka, Goth. leikan:—OTeut. *līkǣjan, *līkōjan, f. *līko- body (orig. appearance, form): see lich n.]
1. intr.
a. To please, be pleasing, suit a person. Chiefly quasi-trans. with dat.; † in early use also const. to, till. Also impers. as in it likes me = I am pleased, it is my pleasure to do so-and-so. Now only arch. and dial.
971Blickl. Hom. 129 æᵹhwylc man, sy þær eorðan þær he sy, þurh gode dæda Gode lician sceal. c1000ælfric Gen. xxvii. 14 Heo hit ᵹearwode, swa heo wiste þæt his fæder licode. c1175Lamb. Hom. 63 God..ȝife us swa his wil to donne þet we gode likie and monne. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 29 Þane he wile don oðer queðen hwat him þanne licað after defles lore. c1205Lay. 8746 Hit þe likede wel þat þu us adun læidest. 1340Ayenb. 187 Efterward ase merci likeþ to god alsuo hit ne likeþ noþing to þe dyeule. c1374Chaucer Boeth. iv. pr. vi. 108 (Camb. MS.) The victories cawse lykede to the goddes and the cause ouer⁓comen lykede to catoun. 1375Barbour Bruce i. 505 It likit till his will. 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) v. xii. 103 This is my loued sone that lyketh me. c1430Two Cookery-bks. 31 Take Porke or Beef, wheþer þe lykey, & leche it þinne þwerte. c1449Pecock Repr. ii. xix. 267 Chese the seers which of tho answers to hem lijkith. 1535Coverdale Esther i. 8 The kynge had commaunded..that euery one shulde do as it lyked him. 1577Harrison England ii. ix. (1877) i. 201 To give his roiall consent to such statutes as him liketh of. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. i. 100 Like it your Grace, The State takes notice. 1627E. F. Hist. Edw. II (1680) 87 How that way may like you, that I know not. 1784Cowper Task vi. 405 There they are free, And howl and war as likes them, uncontroul'd. a1850Rossetti Dante & Circ. (1874) i. 41, I rode sullenly Upon a certain path that liked me not.
†b. simply. To be pleasing, be liked or approved. Obs.
c888K. ælfred Boeth. xviii. §3 (Sedgefield) Forðy sceolde ælc mon bion on ðæm wel ᵹehealden þæt he on his aᵹnum earde licode. c1315Shoreham Poems (E.E.T.S.) 98/13 Senne hys swete and lykeþ, Wanne a man hi deþ. 1388Wyclif Gen. xvi. 6 Lo! thi seruantesse is in thin hond; vse thou hir as it likith. 1616B. Jonson Devil an Ass Prol., If this Play doe not like, the Diuell is in 't.
c. to like well or like ill: to be pleasing or the reverse.
c1250Gen. & Ex. 4029 Ille liked ðanne balaac Euerilc word ðe prest balaam spac. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 11829 Him þoȝte þe wide contreie wolde him liki bet. c1380Sir Ferumb. 76 Wan he was war of þe frenschemen on h[ert] him likid ille. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 18 My fader asked me ‘how likithe you?’..And y tolde my fader how me liked. 1590Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iv. i. I. 5, Ile dispose them [women] as it likes me best. 1596Danett tr. Comines (1614) 61 They sallied foorth where liked them best by the breaches thereof. 1608Yorksh. Trag. i. iii, Good Sir, keep but in patience, and I hope my words shall like you well. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 353 They..colour, shape or size Assume, as likes them best. 1668Pepys Diary 22 Nov., My boy's livery is come home..and it likes me well enough. 1680Moxon Mech. Exerc. 222 Either with Moldings or other Work upon it, as best likes them. 1799Wordsw. Ruth 209 Where it liked her best she sought Her shelter. 1808Scott Marm. vi. xv, At first in heart it liked me ill. 1832Arnold Serm. II. 320 If there be no God,..let us eat and drink, or follow what likes us best. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xii. 103, I wish any respected bachelor that reads this may take the sort that best likes him.
†2. refl. and intr. for refl. To please oneself, take pleasure, delight in (something). Obs.
a1300E.E. Psalter xxxvi. 4 Like in Laverd. a1300Cursor M. 19231 Ilk suik it-self bisuikes, And lethes mast þat þar-in likes. Ibid. 28336, I ha me liked ai vm-quile In vnnait wordes. 1340Ayenb. 177 Me zeneȝeþ wel ofte..be þe nase ine to moche him to liky in guode smelles. 1549Chaloner Erasm. on Folly F ij b, Yet dooe these my old gurles not a little lyke their selves herein.
3. intr. To be pleased or glad. to like ill: to be displeased or sad. Now only Sc.
13..Guy Warw. (A.) 500 Þerl for him sori was, Ther liked non in that plas. c1320Sir Tristrem 1151 Þei marke liked ille. c1400Gamelyn 618 And Adam Spencer liked right ille. c1460Towneley Myst. xxvii. 114 Ye ar all heuy and lykyt yll here in this way. c1475Rauf Coilȝear 39 Be that it drew to the nicht, The King lykit ill. 1896J. Balfour Paul in N. & Q. Ser. viii. X. 485/2, I should like if Mr. Reid would be good enough to inform us if the note-book states [etc.].
†4. To be in good condition; to get on, do well, thrive. Chiefly with adv., well, better, etc.
c1325Poem times Edw. II (Percy) xliv, Thi maystre is i-wonne And lyketh. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §53 It may fortune there be some [sheep] that like not and be weike. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 33 It [the beech tree]..liketh best being sowne in moyst grounds. 1584Cogan Haven Health cxciv. (1636) 176 Children..live and like better with that [milk], than with any other thing. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 92 (Qo. 1600) By my troth, you like [1623 looke] well, and beare your yeeres very well. 1601Holland Pliny I. 500 Trees generally do like best that stand to the Northeast wind. 1615W. Lawson Country Housew. Garden (1626) 3 We meddle not with Apricocks nor Peaches, nor scarcely with Quinches, which will not like in our cold parts, vnlesse [etc.]. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. i. iv, The Cattle..like as well with it. 1673Ray Journ. Low C., Malta 296 Indigo..agrees with the soil, and likes and thrives there very well. 1681J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. xxxviii. §4 (1689) 245 The Ponds where they like well.
5. To derive pleasure of, occas. by, with (a person or thing); to approve of, become fond of. Also with adv. (well or ill). Obs. exc. dial.
c1430Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 3124 Of this message he liked yll. 1465Paston Lett. II. 186, I understode he lykyd not by hys dysposicyon. 1579–80North Plutarch, Lycurgus (1595) 63 To see his notable lawes..so well established and liked of by experience. 1590Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) A 4 b, Daughter like of whome thou please. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. ⁋2 But was that his magnificence liked of by all? 1643Sir H. Slingsby Diary (1836) 98 He..began to like better of his employment. 1672Sir C. Lyttelton in Hatton Corr. (1878) 100 Y⊇ King likes soe well of Sr T. L. that [etc.]. 1709Strype Ann. Ref. I. xxv. (1824) 419 Opinions, by no means liked of by the Bishop Cheney. Ibid. ii. xliv. (1824) 167 They hoped..that their prince..would like well with this their doing. 1764Burn Poor Laws 77 If any beggar's child..shall be liked of by any subject of this realm of honest calling. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Like of, to approve. ‘My master will not like of it.’ 1854A. E. Baker Northamptonsh. Gloss. I. 397, I daredn't do't; my master wouldn't like of it.
6. a. trans. (The current sense.) To find agreeable or congenial; to feel attracted to or favourably impressed by (a person); to have a taste or fancy for, take pleasure in (a thing, an action, a condition, etc.). In early use often to like well (now arch. in this form, though we say freely to like very, pretty well, and to like better or best), and antithetically to like ill (arch.) = to dislike. Colloq. phrases: I like that!, an ironical expression of surprise or disgust at someone's impudence, conceit, untruthfulness, etc.; (to do, etc., something) and like it, (to endure or perform something unpleasant) with a good grace, without complaint; to like it or lump it, see lump v.2 2. For to know what one likes see know v. 11 f.
As used with reference to persons, the vb. is often contrasted (as expressing a weaker sentiment) with love.
The two earliest quots. may belong to sense 1.
c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 95 Mildheorted beð þe man þe reouþ his nehȝebures unselðe, and likeð here alre selðe. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2039 Conan þe kinges neueu ne likede noȝt þis game. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1076 Dido, And for he was a straunger sumwhat sche Likede hym the bet. c1470Golagros & Gaw. 1015 Be that schir Wawane the wy likit the wer. 1530Palsgr. 611/2, I can nat lyke hym better than I do. 1581T. Howell Deuises (1879) 200 Wante makes the Lyon stowte, a slender pray to leeke. 1590Spenser F.Q. iii. ix. 24 Yet every one her likte, and every one her lov'd. a1592H. Smith Serm. (1637) 338 He which would have chosen the best, yet liked another before him. 1602Warner Alb. Eng. xi. lxvii. (1612) 285 With women, that no lesse attract our senses them to leeke. 1671Milton P.R. iv. 171, I never lik'd thy talk, thy offers less, Now both abhor. 1711Steele Spect. No. 79 ⁋4 My Lover does not know I like him. a1716South Serm. (1823) III. 237 Where a man neither loves nor likes the thing he believes. 1741Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Mr. Wortley 5 Nov., The people here [Geneva] are very well to be liked. 1781Cowper Truth 210 He likes your house, your housemaid, and your pay. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xxxviii, Maybe ye may like the ewe-milk..cheese better. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxiii, I may like him well enough; but you don't love your servants. c1869Taylor & Dubourg in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1973) III. 255 Lilian. Bertie, you are a duffer. In these [arithmetic] questions the strength is always presumed to be equal. Fitz-Urse. I like that. As if one fellow was ever just as strong as another fellow. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 50 Most persons say that lawgivers should make such laws as the people like. 1902J. Brynildsen Dict. Eng. & Dano-Norwegian Lang. s.v. like, I ∼ that..! det var jo rart! 1927A. B. Cox Mr. Priestley's Problem ix. 146 ‘George, go and send them away.’ ‘Oh come,’ protested George. ‘I like that.’ a1930D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 182 ‘I feel so bare and brazen without a whiff of powder on my nose.’ He gave a shout of laughter. ‘I like that!’ he said. 1941H. G. Wells You can't be too Careful iii. vii. 138 ‘You made me.’ ‘I like that.’ 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 11 And like it! A Naval expression anticipating a grouse and added to any instruction for an awkward or unwanted job. 1955J. Bingham Paton Street Case vi. 97 ‘I'll have a pint.’.. ‘You won't,’ said Stan. ‘It's May's birthday. You'll have a double Scotch, Len, and like it.’ 1971‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Doctor Bird ii. 21 I'll do it again, and you'll stand by and like it. 1974I. Murdoch Sacred & Profane Love Machine 73 ‘If we didn't stupefy ourselves with drink we wouldn't get so comatose.’ ‘I like that. You taught me to drink.’
b. absol. Phr. if you like: if you wish to phrase or consider something in a particular manner; often used as a vaguely intensive expression, = ‘indeed’, ‘perhaps’. colloq.
1590Shakes. Com. Err. iii. ii. 7 If you like elsewhere doe it by stealth. 1595― John ii. i. 511 If he see ought in you that makes him like. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 583 Till in the Amorous Net Fast caught, they lik'd, and each his liking chose. a1742J. Hammond Love Elegies vii, They met, they lik'd, they stay'd but till alone. 1808Scott Marm. v. Introd., Looking [he] liked, and liking loved. 1875T. E. Bridgett Our Lady's Dowry ii. xi. 336 They were placed in churches by simple faith, or credulity if you like, but not by wilful fraud. 1909W. H. Hudson Afoot in Eng. ii. 20 ‘What!’ I exclaimed. ‘Lady Y―: that funny old woman!’ ‘No—middle-aged,’ he corrected... ‘Very well, middle-aged if you like.’ 1955L. P. Hartley Perfect Woman xxxvi. 325 Eighteen years faithful to an unfaithful man: there was a proof of staunchness, if you like! 1968‘A. Gilbert’ Night Encounter iii. 37 That was a surprise, if you like, you wouldn't have thought Mr. Nicholas had enough humanity in him to give her a child. 1970Sunday Times (Colour Suppl.) 15 Mar. 25/1, I could tell you some stories about Max [Miller], but I won't. Used to make me laugh, though. He was real blue if you like. 1973Listener 15 Nov. 664/1 Princess Anne: We're shown the best, if you like. But nonetheless it's life.
c. With direct obj. and inf. or complementary pa. pple. or adj., or (now rarely) a clause introduced by that.
1534More On the Passion Wks. 1290/2 Such as are lerned, will like also, that [etc.]. 1805Scott Last Minstr. v. xxx, Less lik'd he still, that scornful jeer Mispris'd the land he lov'd so dear. 1842J. H. Newman Lett. (1891) II. 393 Would he like the subject discussed in newspapers? 1849Thackeray Pendennis xlv, It was Blanche who..asked him..whether he liked women to hunt? 1887Colvin Keats viii. 207 The sonatas of Haydn were the music he liked Severn best to play to him.
d. With inf. as obj.: To find it agreeable, feel inclined to do or be so and so. Often somewhat idiomatically in conditional use, to express a desire, as I should like (= F. je voudrais bien, G. ich möchte gern); often derisively in I should like to see—(intimating that what is referred to is impossible), I should like to know (implying that the question has no natural answer). Also with ellipsis of inf., as in to do as one likes.
c1350Will. Palerne 5528 Ȝe þat liken in loue swiche þinges to here. c1440Generydes 2010 Do as ȝe leke, for this is my councell. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 11 Who so lykes to luk it oure. c1470Henry Wallace i. 33 Quha likis till haif mar knawlage in that part. 1528Gardiner in Pocock Rec. Ref. I. l. 112 His holiness for pastime liked well to hear thereof. 1568Satir. Poems Reform. xlviii. 1 Off cullouris cleir quha lykis to weir, Ar sindry sortis in to this toun. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ii. 152 Euerie ane mycht marie how mony wyfes he lyket. 1611Bible Rom. i. 28 They did not like [Gr. οὐκ ἐδοκίµασαν] to retaine God in their knowledge. 1662Pepys Diary 22 Aug., I had liked to have begged a parrot for my wife. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi. §50 He may either go or stay, as he best likes. 1694Atterbury Serm. (1726) I. 191 He is already under the Dominion and Power of his own Lusts, and perhaps likes to be so. 1819Shelley Julian & Mad. 199 If you would like to go, We'll visit him. 1830Macaulay Rob. Montgomery Ess. (1872) 130 What, we should like to know, is the difference between the two operations which Mr. Robert Montgomery so accurately distinguishes from each other..? 1831― in Life I. 233, I should have liked to have sate through so tremendous a storm. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxii, [Mr. Gunter threatens to throw Mr. Noddy out of window] ‘I should like to see you do it, sir,’ said Mr. Noddy. 1859Mill Liberty v. 187 A person should be free to do as he likes in his own concerns. 1868Bain Ment. & Mor. Sci. iv. xi. 406 To say we can be virtuous if we like, is [etc.]. 1874Ruskin Fors Clav. xxxix. 68, I should like to have somebody for a help. 1884Manch. Exam. 28 May 5/2 Those critics..who maintain that we are free to do as we like in Egypt.
e. Often used, esp. with conditional auxiliary, for like to have.
1822Shelley Faust ii. 1 Would you not like a broomstick? Mod. I should like more time to consider the matter. Would you like the arm-chair?
f. The neutral sense inferable from the qualified uses, to like well or ill (see above), survives in the interrogative use with how, as in ‘How do you like my new gown?’, ‘How would you like to be called a fool to your face?’, etc.
1596Shakes. Merch. V. iii. v. 77 How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife? 1606Day Ile of Guls B 4 b, Boy, how doost like me in this attyre? 1727Boyer Fr. Dict. s.v. Trouver, Comment le trouvez-vous? How do you like it? 1819Shelley Cyclops 532 How does the God like living in a skin? 1860Tennyson Sea Dreams 194 How like you this old satire?
¶g. In the colloquial half-jocular expression, used of an article of food or the like, ‘I like it, but it does not like me’ (i.e. does not suit my health), the use seems to be a mere perversion of sense 6, and not directly connected with sense 1.
1899H. Frederic Market-place xxiii. 307 He liked the water, and the water liked him..He decided that he would have a yacht.
Add:[6.] [a.] Also with vbl. n. as obj. (Further examples.)
1824M. M. Sherwood Waste Not ii. 5 How do you like being boxed up with the old lady? 1898G. B. Shaw You never can Tell i. 233 Oh, if you like being hurt, all right. 1914D. H. Lawrence Prussian Officer 104 He sang in the choir because he liked singing. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited ii. i. 198, I had chosen to do what I could do well,..and liked doing. 1980Observer 22 June 12, I don't like being recognised in the street. 1995Mixmag May 100 I'm serious about my music, but I like having a laugh.
▪ IV. like, v.2
Also 5–6 lyke.
[f. like a.]
†1. trans.
a. To fashion in a certain likeness.
b. To represent as like to; to compare to.
c. To make a likeness of; to imitate. Obs.
c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1460 In haly speche he lyked [Bæda assimilavit] his lunde. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. vi. 48 Like me to the pesant Boyes of France. 1613W. Browne Brit. Past. i. v. 489 Her lily hand (not to be lik'd by Art) A pair of pincers held. 1622Wither Mistr. Philar. F 7 b, If to gold I like her Haire.
2. intr. (Const. inf.)
†a. To seem, pretend. Obs.
b. To look like or be near to doing (something) or to being treated (in a specified manner). Now vulgar and dial. (U.S.), chiefly in compound tenses, had (rarely were) liked to, or (dial.) am (is, etc.) liken (for liking) to, etc. (Cf. had like s.v. like a.)
1426Paston Lett. I. 24 The gret tendrenesse ye lyke to have of the salvacion of my symple honeste. 1598Parsons Archpriest Controv. (Camden) I. 32 The other disorders that I have signified..were liked to have receved a severe sentence & punishment. 1599Shakes. Much Ado v. i. 115 Wee had likt to haue had our two noses snapt off with two old men without teeth. a1622R. Hawkins Voy. (1878) 91 Her old leake..had liked to have drowned all those which were in her. 1654–66Earl of Orrery Parthen. (1676) 18 Joy had lik'd to have performed what grief but begun. a1689A. Behn Novels (1722) I. 282 The Rabble had lik'd to have pulled him to pieces. 1716Abp. Nicholson in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 396 The judges, whom he had liked to have provoked by his clownish behaviour at the bar. 1724Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1733) II. 119 My heart alake, is liken to break When I think on my winsome John. 1760H. Walpole Let. to G. Montagu 25 Oct., He probably got his death, as he liked to have done two years ago, by [etc.]. 1781Bentham Wks. (1843) X. 92 He..was once what I had liked to have been, a methodist. 1800A. M. Thornton in Rec. Columbia Hist. Soc. (1907) X. 117 Joe..said they had liked to have been lost in Pohick run. 1802Bentham Wks. 390, I would not serve you as X. Y. Bellamy had liked to have served us. 1853J. A. Benton California Pilgr. 127 The evening liked to have been a tedious evening. 1854J. E. Cooke Virginia Comedians I. xlix. 282 She liked to fainted just now.
▪ V. like
obs. f. lick v.; var. lich, liche. |