like
Language: English
Part of speech: particle
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: “You'll try it, some day, like enough; but you'll get tired of the change pretty soon.” “Why?” “Well, I'll tell you. Now you've always been a sailor; did you ever try some other business?”
ref: 1909, Mark Twain, Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven:
text: If I can't spare the time—well, like as not we go anyhow. And where else can you ride all day with your saddle and neck full of snow brushed from the trees and still not freeze half to death?
ref: 1936, New Mexico: The Sunshine State's Recreational and Highway Magazine:
glosses: Likely.
examples: text: He was so angry, like.
qualifier: Liverpool
glosses: A delayed filler.
examples: text: There were, like, twenty of them.
text: [Sally Brown:] Christmas is getting all you can get while the getting is good.
 [Charlie Brown:] GIVING! The only real joy is GIVING!
 [Sally Brown, rolling her eyes:] Like, wow!
ref: 1972 December 1, Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts:
text: "She's like brand new."
ref: 1980, Richard Louis Newmann, Siege of Orbitor, page xiii. 68:
glosses: Indicating approximation or uncertainty.
examples: text: I was like, “Why did you do that?” and he's like, “I don't know.”
text: A customer walked in like, "I demand to see the manager!"
text: You're just doing your own thing and some one comes out the blue,
They're like, "Alright"
What ya saying, "Yeah can I take your digits?"
And you're like, "no not in a million years, you're nasty please leave me alone."
ref: 2006, Lily Allen, Knock 'Em Out:
text: 'It made this sky ripping noise, and then went like “bang”, real hard into the ground. A long way away but.'
ref: 2014, Geoffrey Riddell, The Fly-ahead Boy, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 108:
glosses: Used to precede an approximate quotation or paraphrase or an expression of something that happened.
examples: text: She was, like, sooooo happy.
text: And then he, like, got all angry and left the room.
glosses: a discourse marker used to highlight or put focus on new information or a new development in a story
Synonyms: sense: delayed filler
word: I mean
sense: delayed filler
word: you know
sense: mild intensifier
word: I mean
sense: mild intensifier
word: well
sense: mild intensifier
word: you know
sense: indicating approximation or uncertainty
word: around
sense: indicating approximation or uncertainty
word: about
word: be all
word: go
Derived terms: be like