At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy ; and what sheliked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
1662,Thomas Salusbury,Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Systems of the World, (Dialogue Two):
And therefore it is the best way, if youlike of it, to examine these taken from experiments touching the Earth, and then proceed to those of the other kind.
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. Iliked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.
This self-service checkout doesn't seem tolike 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’tlike.
email delivery failed: remote host does notlike recipient
(archaic) To come near; to avoid with difficulty; to escape narrowly.
Heliked to have been too late.
1760,Horace Walpole,The Letters of Horace Walpole: Fourth Earl of Oxford[3], to George Montagu:
He probably got his death, as heliked to have done two years ago, by viewing the troops for the expedition from the wall of Kensington Garden.
(obsolete) To have an appearance or expression; to look; to seem to be (in a specified condition).
Like is only used to mean “want” in certain expressions, such as “if you like” and “I would like”. The conditional form,would like, is used quite freely as a polite synonym forwant.
Faroese: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(fo)(with subject in dative case and object in accusative case)
Romanian:plăcea(ro)(with subject and object reversed)
Russian:нра́виться(ru)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),люби́ть(ru)impf(ljubítʹ)
(Internet) An individual vote showing support for, approval of, or enjoyment of, something posted on the Internet.
2016, Brooke Warner,Green-Light Your Book:
Social media is supervisual, and there's nothing more shareable than images, so this is a way to increase shares andlikes and follows.
2019, “Balenciaga”, performed by Princess Nokia:
Dress for myself, I don't dress for hype / I dress for myself, you dress for thelikes
2020 January 17, Amy Chozick, “This Is the Guy Who’s Taking Away the Likes”, inNew York Times[4]:
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.
The two cats were aslike as though they had come from the same litter.
1902, John Buchan,The Outgoing of the Tide:
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 mostlike cases, was a lassie.
[…]and this is not a sky, it is a Soul and living Face! Nothingliker the Temple of the Highest, bright with some real effulgence of the Highest, is seen in this world.
I opened the man's linen robe, and there over his heart was a dagger-wound, and beneath the woman's fair breast was alike cruel stab, through which her life had ebbed away.
Many were[…] not easy to be govern'd, norlike to conform themselves to such strict rules.
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.[…]”, inTravels into Several Remote Nations of the World.[…][Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London:[…]Benj[amin] Motte,[…],→OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag),page151:
Finding it waslike 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.
1902, John Buchan,The Outgoing of the Tide:
She had waited overlong, and now it waslike that Ailie would escape her toils.
"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here. What then? If he belike to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
"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 attractslike," explained Mrs. Mailey[.]
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, thelike of which has never been seen on this Earth.
1982,Douglas Adams,Life, the Universe and Everything, page93:
In fact it would be fair to say that he had reached a level of annoyance thelike of which had never been seen in the Universe.
2024 October 30, Andy Comfort, “Can the Royal Mail trains keep on running?”, inRAIL, number1021, page61:
The manifesto talks of safeguards to ensure that freight operators receive fair access to the network. These may be reassuring words forthe 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.
(golf) Thestroke thatequalizes the number of strokes played by the opposing player or side.
The American Heritage Dictionary opines that usinglike as a conjunction, instead ofas,the way,as if, oras though, is strictlyinformal; it has, however, been routine since theMiddle English period.AHD4 says, "Writers since Chaucer's time have usedlike as a conjunction, but 19th-century and 20th-century critics have been so vehement in their condemnations of this usage that a writer who uses the construction in formal style risks being accused of illiteracy or worse", and recommends usingas in formal speech and writing.The Oxford English Dictionary does not tag it as colloquial ornonstandard, but notes, "Used as conj[unction]: = 'like as', 'as'. Now generally condemned as vulgar or slovenly, though examples may be found in many recent writers of standing."
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.
Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear spacelike 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.
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.
She waslike a BeardsleySalome, 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.
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 rusheslike a timid dog on a choke chain.
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.
“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?”
1936,New Mexico: The Sunshine State's Recreational and Highway Magazine:
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?
[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!
1980, Richard Louis Newmann,Siege of Orbitor, page xiii. 68:
"She'slike brand new."
(colloquial)Used to precede an approximate quotation or paraphrase or an expression of something that happened.
I waslike, “Why did you do that?” and he'slike, “I don't know.”
A customer walked inlike, "I demand to see the manager!"
You're just doing your own thing and some one comes out the blue, They'relike, "Alright" What ya saying, "Yeah can I take your digits?" And you'relike, "no not in a million years, you're nasty please leave me alone."
The use as a quotative is informal; it is commonly used by young people, and commonly disliked by older generations, especially in repeated use. It may be combined with the use of the present tense as a narrative. (For its use preceded by a form ofbe, seebe like.) Similar terms areto go andall, as inI go, “Why did you do that?” and he goes, “I don't know” andI was all, “Why did you do that?” and he was all, “I don't know.” These expressions can imply that the attributed remark which follows is representative rather than necessarily an exact quotation; however, in speech these structures do tend to require mimicking the original speaker's inflection in a waysaid would not.
According toRoyal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
