had like

verb

Had nearly; (did) not quite (followed by the infinitive).

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Meanings

verb
  1. archaicHad nearly; (did) not quite (followed by the infinitive).

    [the] report […]had like to have been my utter overthrow

    c. 1603, Walter Raleigh, Apology for the Voyage to Guiana
    2 more examples

    Wee had likt to haue had our two noses snapt off with two old men without teeth.

    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 V, scene i]

    Ramona had like to have said the literal truth, […] but recollected herself in time.

    1884, Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona
Cite this entry
APA

had like. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/had%20like

MLA

“had like.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/had%20like. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “had like,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/had%20like.

Source: had like on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.