like

(Hong Kong Cantonese, social media) like

(Hong Kong Cantonese, figuratively) appreciation; approval

/lɐi̯⁵⁵ kʰiː³⁵/

/lɐi̯⁵⁵ kʰiː³⁵/


like

(Hong Kong Cantonese, Internet slang) to like

/lɐi̯⁵⁵ kʰiː³⁵/

/lɐi̯⁵⁵ kʰiː³⁵/


like

Den fik 30.000 likes i løbet af en halv time, hvilket er ret meget.

It received 30,000 likes in the course of half an hour, which is quite a lot.

head

like n (singular definite liket, plural indefinite likes)

liket (definite singular)
likes (indefinite plural)


like

Han havde liket sin egen kommentar.

like (imperative like, infinitive at like, present tense liker, past tense likede, perfect tense har liket)

like (imperative)
at like (infinitive)
liker (present)
likede (past)
har liket (perfect)


like

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.

16th century, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia:

His countenance likes me not.

1608, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 2, scene 2:

To enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of.

(transitive, archaic) To please (same meaning as above but with subject and object reversed).

To enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of.

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.

1662, Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Systems of the World, (Dialogue Two):

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.

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:

(obsolete) To derive pleasure [with of or by or with ‘from someone or something’].

+obj

:of/:by/:with<from someone or something>

[with of or by or with ‘from someone or something’]

I like hamburgers.

I like skiing in winter.

I like the Seattle Mariners this season.

He may either go or stay, as he best likes.

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:

“I can tell you more than that, if you like,” said the Gryphon. “Do you know why it’s called a whiting?”

1865, Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 10:

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.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

I like to go to the dentist every six months.

She likes to keep herself physically fit.

We like to keep one around the office just in case.

People in Washington like to work out!
Audio (US): (file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

To prefer and maintain (an action) as a regular habit or activity.

I really like Sandra but don't know how to tell her.

― Enju: “Apparently when you like someone, you start talking like them.”

2016 December 19, Moe! Ninja Girls, Japan: NTT Solmare, iOS, Android, scene: Season 1, Enju Ending:

To find attractive; to prefer the company of; to have mild romantic feelings for.

Would you like a cigarette?

We could go to the museum if you like.

I don't like to disturb him when he's working.

(with 'would' and in certain other phrases) To want, desire. See also would like.

with 'would' and in certain other phrases

I liked my friend's last status on Facebook.

I can't stand Bloggs' tomato ketchup, but I liked it on Facebook so I could enter a competition.

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.

2021, Adam McKay, Don't Look Up, spoken by Jason Orlean (Jonah Hill):

(Internet, social media, transitive) To show support for, or approval of, something posted on the Internet by marking it with a vote.

Too bad this cheese likes to stick to the pan and ruin the whole meal.

(informal, personification) To be prone to.

This self-service checkout doesn't seem to like my credit card.

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.

email delivery failed: remote host does not like recipient

(informal, chiefly in the negative) Of a computer or other system: to tolerate as an input; to accept.

He liked to have been too late.

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.

1760, Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole: Fourth Earl of Oxford, to George Montagu:

(archaic) To come near; to avoid with difficulty; to escape narrowly.

You like well, and bear your years very well.

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]:

(obsolete) To have an appearance or expression; to look; to seem to be (in a specified condition).

And like me to the peasant boys of France.

1590s, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, act 4, scene 6:

en-verb

like (third-person singular simple present likes, present participle liking, simple past and past participle liked)

likes (present singular third-person)
liking (participle present)
liked (participle past)
liked (past)
lak (alternative)

Jersey Dutch: lāike

падаба́цца (padabácca) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

plaĉi al (intransitive, the person who likes is marked with the preposition al)

dáma (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

hóva (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

líka (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

falla (with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)

plaire (à)

the person who likes is the object of the verb

gefallen (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

מָצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי (matzá ẖen b'enéy, literally “found grace in the eyes of”) (with subject and object reversed)

tetszik (with the person or thing liked in the dative)

podobać się impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

нра́виться impf (nrávitʹsja) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case) (e.g. мне нра́вится (mne nrávitsja) + nominative case - I like + object)

сви́ђати се impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

svíđati se impf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

zespódobaś se pf (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

all above + indirect object: ལ་དོན (la don) (oblique/dative-locative case) (ལ/-ར (la / -ra))

подо́батися (podóbatysja) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

געפֿעלן (gefeln) (intransitive, the person who likes is the object of the verb in the dative case)

gefallen + dat (with subject and object reversed)

tetszik (with the person or thing liked in the dative case)

հավանել

to show support for, or approval of, something posted on the Internet by marking it with a vote

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”), Dutch lijken (“to seem”), German 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 líka (“to like”).
Noun from Middle English like (“pleasure, will, like”), from the verb Middle English liken (“to like”).

inh

Old English līcian (“to like, to please”)

cog

Saterland Frisian liekje (“to be similar, resemble”)

German Low German lieken (“to be like; resemble”)

Swedish lika (“to like; put up with; align with”)

inh

Middle English like (“pleasure, will, like”)


like

Tell me your likes and dislikes.

(chiefly in the plural) Something that a person likes (prefers).

Social media is supervisual, and there's nothing more shareable than images, so this is a way to increase shares and likes and follows.

2016, Brooke Warner, Green-Light Your Book:

Dress for myself, I don't dress for hype / I dress for myself, you dress for the likes

2019, “Balenciaga”, performed by Princess Nokia:

Likes are the social media currency undergirding an entire influencer economy, inspiring a million Kardashian wannabes and giving many of us regular people daily endorphin hits.

2020 January 17, Amy Chozick, “This Is the Guy Who’s Taking Away the Likes”, in New York Times:

(Internet) An individual vote showing support for, approval of, or enjoyment of, something posted on the Internet.

→ Russian: лайк (lajk)

→ Ukrainian: лайк (lajk)

→ Spanish: like, likear


like

My partner and I have like minds.

The two cats were as like as though they had come from the same litter.

It will seem strange that in all this time the Presbytery was idle, and no effort was made to rid the place of so fell an influence. But there was a reason, and the reason, as in most like cases, was a lassie.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

[…]and this is not a sky, it is a Soul and living Face! Nothing liker the Temple of the Highest, bright with some real effulgence of the Highest, is seen in this world.

1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 3, Landlord Edmund”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

I opened the man's linen robe, and there over his heart was a dagger-wound, and beneath the woman's fair breast was a like cruel stab, through which her life had ebbed away.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

But it is like the jolly world about us will scoff at the paradox of these practices.

1668, Robert South, The Messiah's Sufferings for the Sins of the People (sermon, March 20, 1668)

Many were […] not easy to be govern'd, nor like to conform themselves to such strict rules.

1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our Sprit-ſail, and ſtood by to hand the Fore-ſail; but making foul Weather, we look'd the Guns were all faſt, and handed the Miſſen.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 151:

She had waited overlong, and now it was like that Ailie would escape her toils.

(archaic or Scotland, Southern US) Likely; probable.

He seems like to run from any semblance of hard work.

1920 [1843], Charles Dickens, “Stave three: The second of the three spirits”, in A Christmas Carol, Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, page 96:

(Scotland, Southern US, otherwise archaic, usually with to) inclined (to), prone (to).

en-adj

like (comparative more like, superlative most like)

more like (comparative)
most like (superlative)
lak (alternative)

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).


like

DON PEDRO. May be she doth but counterfeit.
CLAUDIO. Faith, like enough.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 103:13:

(archaic or rare) In a like or similar manner.


like

There were bowls full of sweets, chocolates and the like.

It was something the likes of which I had never seen before.

"Such things do happen and centre round the wicked medium. You can get down into a region which is akin to the popular idea of witchcraft, it is dishonest to deny it." "Like attracts like," explained Mrs. Mailey[.]

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

1935, Winston Churchill on T.E. Lawrence
We shall never see his like again.

It was to spare the Japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of July the 26th was issued at Potsdam. Their leaders promptly rejected that ultimatum. If they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth.

1945 August 6, Harry S. Truman, 01:49 from the start, in VT2008-9-2 President Truman Announces Bombing of Hiroshima, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 23630, archived from the original on 2021-11-02:

In fact it would be fair to say that he had reached a level of annoyance the like of which had never been seen in the Universe.

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 93:

The manifesto talks of safeguards to ensure that freight operators receive fair access to the network. These may be reassuring words for the likes of DB Cargo, but the devil will be in the detail and freight operators will no doubt be pressing for that detail to include cheaper electricity and access charges.

2024 October 30, Andy Comfort, “Can the Royal Mail trains keep on running?”, in RAIL, number 1021, page 61:

(sometimes as the likes of) Someone similar to a given person, or something similar to a given object; a comparative; a type; a sort.

to play the like

(golf) The stroke that equalizes the number of strokes played by the opposing player or side.

en-noun

like (countable and uncountable, plural likes)

مِثْل

something similar to a given person or object


like

1966, Advertising slogan for Winston cigarettes
Winston tastes good like a cigarette should

But if you do right to me, baby
I’ll do right to you, too
Ya got to do unto others
Like you’d have them, like you’d have them, do unto you

It looks like you've finished the project.

It seemed like you didn't care.


like

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.

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:

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.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

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.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

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.

1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

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.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

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.

2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

It would be just like Achilles to be sulking in his tent.

Popcorn costs something like $10 dollars at the movies.

He doesn't act like a president.

It's for websites like Wikipedia.

It looks like a hot summer in Europe.

I hear she has a new boyfriend. What's he like?

What's the weather like in Ürümqi today?

Used to ask for a description or opinion of someone or something


like

“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?”

1909, Mark Twain, Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven:

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?

1936, New Mexico: The Sunshine State's Recreational and Highway Magazine:

He was so angry, like.

(colloquial, Scotland, Ireland, Geordie, Teesside, Liverpool) A delayed filler.

There were, like, twenty of them.

[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!

1972 December 1, Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts:

"She's like brand new."

1980, Richard Louis Newmann, Siege of Orbitor, page xiii. 68:

(colloquial) Indicating approximation or uncertainty.

I was like, “Why did you do that?” and he's like, “I don't know.”

A customer walked in like, "I demand to see the manager!"

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."

'It made this sky ripping noise, and then went like “bang”, real hard into the ground. A long way away but.'

2014, Geoffrey Riddell, The Fly-ahead Boy, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 108:

(colloquial) Used to precede an approximate quotation or paraphrase or an expression of something that happened.

She was, like, sooooo happy.

And then he, like, got all angry and left the room.

(colloquial) a discourse marker used to highlight or put focus on new information or a new development in a story

ပေါ့

colloquial: used to precede paraphrased quotations


like

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.

1837, Earl of Orford Walpole (Horace), Correspondence with George Montagu:

(chiefly dialectal, intransitive) To be likely.

From like (adverb) and like (adjective).


like

first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive

inflection of liker:
second-person singular imperative


like

inflection of liken:
first-person singular present

first/third-person singular subjunctive I

inflection of liken:
singular imperative


like

From Proto-Eastern Polynesian *lite. Compare Maori rite.


like

head

like (imperative lik, present tense liker, simple past likte, past participle likt)

lik (imperative)
liker (present)
likte (past)
likt (participle past)

From Old Norse líka, from Proto-Germanic *līkāną.


like

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.


like

Han er like lang som henne.


like

head

like (imperative lik or like, present tense likar or liker, simple past lika or likte, past participle lika or likt)

lik (imperative)
like (imperative)
likar (present)
liker (present)
lika (past)
likte (past)
lika (participle past)
likt (participle past)
lika (alternative)


like

Dei er like høge.

They are equally tall. / They are as tall as each other.

Han kom fram like før det stengte.


like

(colloquial, neologism, social media) Alternative spelling of lajk

like (nominative singular)
like'i (nominative plural)
like'a (genitive singular)
like'ów (genitive plural)
like'owi (dative singular)
like'om (dative plural)
like'a (accusative singular)
like'i (accusative plural)
likiem (instrumental singular)
like'ami (instrumental plural)
like'u (locative singular)
like'ach (locative plural)
like'u (singular vocative)
like'i (plural vocative)


like

(Brazil, social media) like (Internet interaction)


like

I dinna like.

like (third-person singular simple present likes, present participle likin, simple past likit, past participle likit)

likes (present singular third-person)
likin (participle present)
likit (past)
likit (participle past)

From Old English līcian (“to be pleasing”).


like

Oo jist saw it the now, like.

(Southern Scots) Used to place emphasis upon a statement.


like

definite natural masculine singular of lik


like

Jag har aldrig sett dess like

I've never seen anything like it [its like]

Han hade mött sin like

a like
a match (someone similarly skillful)

like (indefinite nominative singular)
likes (genitive indefinite singular)
liken (definite nominative singular)
likens (definite genitive singular)
likar (indefinite nominative plural)
likars (genitive indefinite plural)
likarna (definite nominative plural)
likarnas (definite genitive plural)