Definition of "like"

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, […], 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

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

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., page 2

Audio (US)(file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)‎:People in Washington like to work out!

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, [Act II, scene iv]

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

― 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

And like me to the peasant boys of France.

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

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)

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

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, 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

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 Theater, published 1707

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, […], part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 151

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

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here. What then? If he be like 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.

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

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

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, [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, […], Psalms 103:13

"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

We shall never see his like again.

1935, Winston Churchill on T.E. Lawrence

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 02 November 2021

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

Winston tastes good like a cigarette should

1966, Advertising slogan for Winston cigarettes

But if you do right to me, babyI’ll do right to you, tooYa got to do unto othersLike you’d have them, like you’d have them, do unto you

1978, Bob Dylan, Do Unto Others

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.

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. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

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

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.

1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎

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

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

“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?”

Mark Twain

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

[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

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."

2006, Lily Allen, Knock 'Em Out

'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, page 108

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