like
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: līk
ipa: /laɪ̯k/
ipa: /læ̙ːk/
ipa: /lɑːk/
ipa: /lɔɪ̯k/
ipa: /lʌɪk/
ipa: [ləi̯k]
rhymes: -aɪk
Forms: form: likes
form: liking
form: liked
form: liked
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: like
form: like
form: liked
form: like
form: likest
form: liked
form: likedst
form: likes
form: liketh
form: liked
form: like
form: liked
form: like
form: liked
form: like
form: -
form: liking
form: liked
form: lak
Etymology: Verb from Middle English liken, from Old English līcian (“to like, to please”), from Proto-West Germanic *līkēn, from Proto-Germanic *līkāną, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“image; likeness; similarity”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian liekje (“to be similar, resemble”), West Frisian lykje (“to seem, appear, look”), Dutch lijken (“to seem”), Low German lieken (“to be like; resemble”), German gleichen (“to resemble”), Swedish lika (“to like; put up with; align with”), Norwegian like (“to like”), Icelandic and Faroese líka (“to like”).
Noun from Middle English like (“pleasure, will, like”), from the verb Middle English liken (“to like”).
Senses: examples: text: I like reading books.
text: I very much like hamburgers.
text: I like skiing in winter very much.
text: I like the Seattle Mariners this season.
text: I like it when you sing.
text: He may either go or stay, as he best likes.
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, page 21:
text: “I can tell you more than that, if you like,” said the Gryphon. “Do you know why it’s called a whiting?”
ref: 1865, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 10:
text: At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
antonyms: dislike
hate
mislike
disapprove
glosses: To enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of.
examples: text: I willingly confess that it likes me much better when I find virtue in a fair lodging than when I am bound to seek it in an ill-favoured creature.
ref: 16th century, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia:
text: His countenance likes me not.
ref: 1608, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 2, scene 2:
antonyms: dislike
hate
mislike
disapprove
glosses: To enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of.
To please (same meaning as above but with subject and object reversed).
examples: text: And therefore it is the best way, if you like of it, to examine these taken from experiments touching the Earth, and then proceed to those of the other kind.
ref: 1662, Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Systems of the World, (Dialogue Two):
text: He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 2:
antonyms: dislike
hate
mislike
disapprove
glosses: To enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of.
To derive pleasure [with of or by or with ‘from someone or something’].
info_templates: extra_data: words: of
by
something’
expansion: [with of or by or with ‘from someone or something’]
examples: text: I like to go to the dentist every six months.
text: She likes to keep herself physically fit.
text: We like to keep one around the office just in case.
text: People in Washington like to work out!
ref: 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain):
glosses: To prefer and maintain (an action) as a regular habit or activity.
examples: text: I really like Sandra but don't know how to tell her.
text: ― Enju: “Apparently when you like someone, you start talking like them.”
ref: 2016 December 19, Moe! Ninja Girls, Japan: NTT Solmare, iOS, Android, scene: Season 1, Enju Ending:
synonyms: word: fancy
word: enjoy
word: love
antonyms: dislike
hate
mislike
glosses: To find attractive; to prefer the company of; to have mild romantic feelings for.
examples: text: Would you like a cigarette?
text: We could go to the museum if you like.
text: May I leave now? ~ If you like.
text: I don't like to disturb him when he's working.
glosses: To want, desire. See also would like.
raw_tags: with 'would' and in certain other phrases
examples: text: I liked my friend's last status on Facebook.
text: I can't stand Bloggs' tomato ketchup, but I liked it on Facebook so I could enter a competition.
text: What' up, y'all? I'm the last man on Earth. Shit's all fucked up. Don't forget to like and subscribe. We out here.
ref: 2021, Adam McKay, Don't Look Up, spoken by Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill):
antonyms: unlike#Verb
dislike#Verb
coordinate_terms: heart
love
qualifier: social media
glosses: To show support for, or approval of, something posted on the Internet by marking it with a vote.
examples: text: Too bad this cheese likes to stick to the pan and ruin the whole meal.
glosses: Of inanimate objects:
To be prone to.
qualifier: personification
examples: text: This self-service checkout doesn't seem to like my credit card.
text: We were frustrated that our seeming innocent choice for a team name was rejected by the game. Apparently somewhere in the name is a word that the algorithm doesn’t like.
text: email delivery failed: remote host does not like recipient
glosses: Of inanimate objects:
Of a computer or other system: to tolerate as an input; to accept.
raw_tags: in the negative
examples: text: He liked to have been too late.
text: 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.
ref: 1760, Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole: Fourth Earl of Oxford, to George Montagu:
glosses: To come near; to avoid with difficulty; to escape narrowly.
examples: text: You like well, and bear your years very well.
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:
glosses: To have an appearance or expression; to look; to seem to be (in a specified condition).
examples: text: And like me to the peasant boys of France.
ref: 1590s, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, act 4, scene 6:
glosses: To liken; to compare.
Derived terms: as you like
belike
beliked
forelike
I'd like to know
if you like
I like that
I like turtles
I'm in this photo and I don't like it
likable
likeability
likeable
likeful
like it or leave it
like it or lump it
like it or not
likejacking
like like
liker
likesome
likeworthy
mislike
semilike
unlikable
unlike
well-liking
would like