like
Language: English
Part of speech: prep
Pronunciation: enpr: līk
ipa: /laɪ̯k/
ipa: /læ̙ːk/
ipa: /lɑːk/
ipa: /lɔɪ̯k/
ipa: /lʌɪk/
ipa: [ləi̯k]
rhymes: -aɪk
Forms: form: lak
Etymology: Adjective from Middle English lik, lyk, lich, like, from Old English ġelīċ by shortening, influenced by Old Norse líkr, glíkr; both from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“like, similar, same”). Related to alike; more distantly, with lich and -ly. Cognate with West Frisian like (“like; as”), Saterland Frisian gliek (“like”), Danish lig (“alike”), Dutch gelijk (“like, alike”), German gleich (“equal, like”), Icelandic líkur (“alike, like, similar”), Norwegian lik (“like, alike”) Swedish lik (“like, similar”)
Adverb from Middle English like, lyke, liche, lyche, from Old English ġelīċe (“likewise, also, as, in like manner, similarly”) and Old Norse líka (“also, likewise”); both from Proto-Germanic *galīkê, from Proto-Germanic *galīkaz (“same, like, similar”).
Conjunction from Middle English like, lyke, lik, lyk, from the adverb Middle English like.
Preposition from Middle English like, lyke, liche, lyche, lijc, liih (“similar to, like, equal to, comparable with”), from Middle English like (adjective) and like (adverb).
Senses: examples: text: Folk like that I just can’t brook.
text: I’m very like my father.
text: Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him.[…]. The captive made no resistance and came not only quietly but in a series of eager little rushes like a timid dog on a choke chain.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
ref: 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
glosses: Similar to, reminiscent of.
examples: text: It would be just like Achilles to be sulking in his tent.
glosses: Typical of.
examples: text: Popcorn costs something like 10 dollars at the movies.
glosses: Approximating.
examples: text: He doesn't act like a president.
glosses: In the manner of, similarly to.
examples: text: It's for websites like Wikipedia.
glosses: Such as.
examples: text: It looks like a hot summer in Europe.
glosses: As if there would be.
examples: text: I hear she has a new boyfriend. What's he like?
text: What’s the weather like in Ürümqi today?
glosses: Used to ask for a description or opinion of someone or something.
Synonyms: sense: such as
word: for example
sense: such as
word: such as
sense: such as
word: as
Derived terms: be like
bend it like Beckham
do someone like that
feel like
just like that
like a big dog
like fits
like nobody else
like smack
like the wrath of God
look like
make like
something like
something like that
stink like a mackerel in the moonlight
stink like a mackerel in the sun
there's no place like home