like 
and the compounds Ukam and likewake, licli- 
wake, lichgate, etc., are ult. derived like 2 , a. and 
n., (prob.) like 3 , v. and n., with their derivatives, 
and the suffixes -ly 1 , -ly 2 , as well as the termi- 
nations of each, ereryl, such (Sc.sJc), thilk, which 
(irltilk), etc.] 1. Body; form; the body of a 
human being or of any animal. 
That in a mannes lyke 
The (level to this mayden com. 
MS. Coll. Trin. Oxon. 57. (Halliwell.) 
Thanne hadde Witte a wyf was hote dame Studye, 
That lene was of lere and of Kehe bothe. 
Pien Plowman (B), x. 2. 
Out of her womanisshe heude 
Into a brlddes like I Uncle 
She was transformed forth withall. 
dower, Conf. Amant,, v. 
2. A dead body; a corpse. 
Ear on the morn, whan it was day, 
Three likes were ta'en frae the castle away ; 
Sir Oluf the leal, and his bride sae fair, 
And his mither, that died wi' sorrow and care. 
Sir Olufand the Elf -King's Daughter (Child's Ballads, 
[I. 301). 
like 2 (Hk), a. and n. [< ME. like, lyke, lijk, lyk, 
also assibilated lich, liclie, lyche; not, as stated 
in the dictionaries, < AS. "lie, like, there being 
no such AS. adj., but, by apheresis, in later ME., 
from the earlier ME. Hike, ilyke, ilyche, alike, 
aJyke, alyche, etc., < AS. gelic, etc., like (gelica, 
n., one like), the numerous ME. forms being 
merged in E. alike : see alike, where the relation 
to like 1 , AS. lie, body, is explained.] I. a. 1. 
Of similar form, appearance, or quality; of cor- 
responding kind, amount, extent, degree, etc. ; 
corresponding; equal or equivalent; analogous; 
agreeing in some noticeable respect : as, terri- 
tory of like extent ; two men of like pursuits and 
tastes. 
Wins was a man subject to like passions as we are. 
Jas. T. 17. 
If the men be both nought, their praiers be both like. 
Sir T. More, Cumfort against Tribulation (1573), fol. 44. 
But thou and I are one in kind, 
As moulded like in nature's mint. 
Tennyson, In Memorlam, Ixxix. 
In proportion as the like units of an aggregate are ex- 
posed to unlike forces, they tend to form differentiated 
parts of the aggregate. //. Spencer, Prin. of Sociol., 455. 
2. Having resemblance ; similar in any respect; 
resembling: followed by to or a dative ease 
(sometimes by a*'), the word or phrase governed 
by to being, however, often omitted : as, they are 
as like (to each other) as two peas. {Like is fre- 
quently suffixed to nouns to form adjectives denoting re- 
semblance or in the manner of, as childlike, niaunul ///><. | 
It was noght no humayn body luke, 
But more better semed a thyng angell-ti/A:e. 
Sam. oJFPartenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 937. 
He was lothly to looke on ; 
He was lyker a devill then a man. 
Bevis of Hampton. (Halliwell.) 
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? 
Ex. xv. 11. 
But thou art the likest Auld Maitland 
That ever I did see. 
Auld Maittand (Child's Ballads, VI. 224). 
Jtos. O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter ! 
Prin. Anything like? Shak., L. L. L., v. 2. 39. 
Come back into memory, like as thou wert in the day- 
spring of thy fancies. Lamb, Christ's Hospital. 
3. Likely; liable. [Archaic or provincial.] 
Or that wayueris in wer what shall worthe of ; 
Licker at the last end in langore to bide, 
And turne vnto torfer, then any triet ioye. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2254. 
He is like to die for hunger in the place where he is. 
Jer. xxxviii. 9. 
Who was dead, 
Who married, who was like to be. 
Tennyson, Audley Court. 
Had like, with a present or past infinitive, a colloquial ex- 
pression for icas likely, came near: as, the wall had like to 
fall (or to have fallen) upon me ; he had like to be (or to 
have been) defeated. 
Forth is at Bury ; but he fell so between two forms as 
he had like, between both, to have fallen back to Boxford. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 405. 
Yet they adventured to go back ; but it was so dark, 
and the flood was so high, that, in their going back, they 
had like to have been drowned nine or ten times. 
Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 173. 
Something like, used elliptically, something like the 
thing desired or aimed at ; what one wants : as, that is 
something like. Such like, of that kind : a pleonasm for 
either such or like. 
Ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots 
and cups : and many other such like things ye do. 
Mark vii. 8. 
They found a large crucifix, copes, rich vestments, beads, 
and heaps of such like trumpery. Walpole, Letters, II. 16. 
To feel like, to have inclination for ; be disposed to : fol- 
lowed by a verbal noun in -ingi : as, he felt like refusing. 
[Colloq.] 
He did not feel like returning to his solitary room. 
K. B. Kimban, Was lie Successful? 
3452 
To look like, to show likelihood or probability of; be in 
a state for: as, the weather looks like clearing. [Colloq. J 
=Syn. Allied, cognate, analogous, parallel. 
II. . A person or thing resembling another; 
a counterpart ; a resemblance ; a similar char- 
acter, condition, or example. 
His living like saw never living eye. 
Spenser, F. Q., I. vii. 8. 
He was a man, take him for all in all, 
I shall not look upon his like again. 
Shak., Hamlet, i. 2. 188. 
Your ladye has a steed, 
The like o' him 's no in the land o' Leed. 
Willie's Ladye (Child's Ballads, I. 164). 
What more naturall then every like to produce his like, 
man to beget man, fire to propagate fire? . 
Milton, Church-Government, i. 4. 
Like cures like, a popular translation of the homeopathic 
maxim similia simiiibus curantur, literally ' like things are 
cured by like things.' The like, whatever is similar or 
akin to that which has been named ; something of a simi- 
lar or comparable character. 
I am a stranger to any ceremonies used by them in Mar- 
riage, or at the Birth of a Child, or the like, if they use any. 
Dumpier, Voyages, II. i. 50. 
He is master of a certain set of words, as Unity, Style, 
Fire, Phlegm, Easy, Natural, Turn, Sentiment, and the 
like. Addison, Sir Timothy Tittle. 
There are one or two fragments of columns and the like 
put to new uses. E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 63. 
like 2 (Ilk), adv. [< ME. like, lyke, by apheresis 
for alike: see alike, adv., and cf. like 2 , a.] 1. 
In the same or a similar manner ; equally ; cor- 
respondingly. 
The thirde daye that thise childeren rode to-geder lyke 
as that ye haue herde. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 191. 
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
them that fear him. Ps. ciii. 13. 
How then can they, like wretched, comfort me ? 
The which no less need comforted to be. 
Lmbj Pembroke (Arber's Eng. Garner, I. 261). 
2. In the manner of ; in the same way as. 
Be strong, and quit yourselves like men. 1 Sam. iv. 9. 
Like one in prayer I stood. 
Longfellow, Voices of the Night, Prel. 
In the honest bosom of this heroic Dutchman dwelt the 
seven noble virtues of knighthood, flourishing among his 
hardy qualities like wild flowers among rocks. 
Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 293. 
Who the r61e of the priest and the soldier unites, 
And, praying like Aaron, like Joshua fights ! 
Whittier, From Perugia. 
[This use of like is so nearly prepositional that the word 
as properly receives the name of preposition in it as do, for 
example, save, during, except, in their prepositional con- 
structions.] 
3. Likely; probably. 
I like the work well ; ere it be demanded 
(As like enough it will), I 'Id have it copied. 
Shak., Othello, iii. 4. 190. 
4. As it were ; so to speak : used after clauses 
or phrases with a signification similar to that of 
like suffixed to nouns. See like 2 , a., 2. [Colloq. 
or provincial.] 
They say she was out of her mind like for six weeks or 
more. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xxxv. 
A drop of good beer puts new sap into a man. It oils 
his joints like. 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III. 263. 
Like blazes. See Wozei. Like fun. See fun Like 
mad. See modi. 
like 2 (Hk), con/. [< like 2 , adv. ; being in part 
an abbr. of like as."] As ; as if. This use is com- 
monly condemned as incorrect, and is generally unac- 
knowledged in dictionaries. It occurs several times in 
Shakspere, and not unfrequently in modern writers, and is 
common in colloquial and provincial usage : as, he limped 
like he had been hurt. 
But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food. 
SViat.,M. N. D.,iv. 1.178. 
Through which they put their heads, like the Gauchos 
do through their cloaks. Darwin, Jour, of a Naturalist, x. 
Like for as is never used in New England, but is univer- 
sal in the South and West. It has on its side the author- 
ity of two kings (ego sum rex Romanorum et supra gratn- 
maticam), Henry VIII. and Charles I. This were ample, 
without throwing into the scale the scholar and poet 
Daniel. Lowell, Introd. to Biglow Papers. 
Iike 2 t (Hk), v. t. ; pret. and pp. liked, ppr. liking. 
[= D. lijken = MLG. liken = Or. gleichen=Goth. 
galcikon, liken, compare; from the adj.: see 
like?, a. Cf. liken."] To regard or describe as 
resembling; liken; compare. [Rare, liken be- 
ing the form in common use.] 
And like me to the peasant boys of France. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., iv. 6. 48. 
= OHG. lichen, lichan, MHG. lichen, be like, 
suit, please, = Icel. lika, please, like, = Goth. 
leikan, also in comp. galeikan, please) ; prob. < 
lie, body, form: see like 1 . The exact transi- 
tion of sense is not clear; appar. 'be the form' 
(for a person governing the dative), i. e. the 
likelihood 
form or thing desired. It is usually explained 
as directly from like 2 , a., ' to be like or suitable' 
(for a person); but the adj. does not exist in the 
earliest tongues (Goth., AS., and OHG.) except 
in the full form (Goth, galeiks, AS. gelic, OHG. 
galih), from which the verb without the prefix 
(Goth, leikan, AS. lician) could hardly be de- 
rived, except by assuming an apheresis impossi- 
ble at this earlyperiod.] I. trans. If. To please; 
be pleasing to; be agreeable to; suit; satisfy: 
used impersonally, and followed by an object, 
originally dative, of the person. 
I wol you tell a litel thing in prose, 
That oughte liken you. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Tale of Melibeus, 1. 20. 
Late me neuer no werke bigynne, 
Lord, but sif it lyke thee. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 252. 
The music likes you not. Shak., T. G. of V., iv. 2. 56. 
So soon as we are past through the town, I will endeavour 
by such discourse as best likes you to pass away the time 
till you come to your ill quarters. 
Cotton, in Walton's Angler, ii. 227. 
[This impersonal construction with the indirect object of 
the person gave way, in early modern English, to a per- 
sonal construction, the person being taken as the subject 
and the thing as the direct object. See def. 2.] 
2. To regard with favor; be well affected to- 
ward ; be pleased with ; take pleasure in. 
And tho that lykys with me to lende, and trewly tent to 
me will take, 
Sail wonne in welth withoutyn ende. York Plays, p. 9. 
If I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from 
thee yet. Shak., Lear, i. 4. 144. 
He first deceas'd ; she for a little try'd 
To live without him, lik'd it not, and died. 
SirH. Wotton, Death of Sir Albert Morton's Wife. 
' ' Be reasonable, Louis be patient ! I like you because 
you are patient." 
" Like me no longer, then love me instead." 
Charlotte Bronte, Shirley, xxxvi. 
I like a monk ; I like a cowl ; 
I love a prophet of the soul. 
Emerson, The Problem. 
3. To agree with, as food or drink. Halliwell. 
[Prov. Eng.]=Syn. 2. Like, Love; be fond of, relish, 
fancy. Like and love differ greatly in strength or warmth, 
and may differ in kind. Like may be feeble and cool, and 
it never has the intensity of love. We may like or even love 
a person ; we only like the most palatable kind of food. 
With an infinitive, like is the common word, love being ap- 
propriate only hi the hyperbole of poetical or rhetorical 
feeling. 
II. in trans. If. To be suitable or agreeable; 
give satisfaction. 
Come, boys, sing cheerfully ; we shall ne'er sing younger. 
We have chosen a loud tune too, because it should like 
well. Fletcher (and others'), Bloody Brother, iii. 2. 
2. To be pleased or suited ; choose : used abso- 
lutely, but formerly sometimes followed by of. 
But when the mightiest began to like of the Christian 
faith, by their means whole free states and kingdoms be- 
came obedient unto Christ. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, viiL 6. 
You have been somewhat bolder in my house 
Than I could well like of. 
Middleton, Chaste Maid, T. 2. 
He may either go or stay, as he best likes. Locke. 
3. To thrive; grow. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng.] 
like 3 (lik), n. [< like 3 , v."] A liking ; a fancy ; 
an inclination : used chiefly in the phrase likes 
and dislikes. 
Sheusedtosay/'Itwas not her likes, but her husband's, 
or she'd have had me back." 
Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II. 561. 
The editor of a magazine should be above personal likes 
and dislikes, and judge articles upon their merits. 
0. W. Curtis, Harper's Mag., LXXIX. 475. 
like 4 (Ilk), v. i. [< like 2 , a., 3.] To be likely: 
chiefly or only in the preterit liked, equivalent 
to had like. See like 2 , a. [Bare.] 
He probably got his death, as he liked to have done two 
years ago, by viewing the troops for the expedition from 
the wall of Kensington-Garden. 
Walpole, Letters, II. 193. (Davies.) 
likeable, likeableness. See likable, likableness. 
likehood (lik'hud), n. [= D. gelijkhcid = MHG. 
gelicheit, glicheit, G. gleichheit = Dan. lighed = 
Sw.likhet; as like 2 + -hood."] Likelihood. [Very 
rare.] 
likeliheadt, n. [ME. liklihede ; < likely + -head. 
Cf. likelihood.'] Same as likelihood. Chaucer. 
likelihood (lik'li-hud), n. [< likely + -hood.] 
1. The state of being likely or probable ; prob- 
ability; likeliness; promise. 
What likelihood of his amendment? 
Shak., Rich. III., i. 3. S3. 
By all likelihood these Eidgcs of Mountains do run in a 
continued Chain from one end of Peru and Chili to the 
other. Dampier, Voyages, I. 95. 
We were looking for an anchoring-place where there 
was a likelihood of fishing. Froude, Sketches, p. 72. 
2. Promising state or appearance; standing; 
consideration. [Archaic.] 
