like

present singular third person likes · participle present liking · participle past liked · past liked · first person past singular liked · archaic present second person singular likest · past second person singular liked · archaic past second person singular likedst · present singular third person likes · archaic present singular third person liketh · past singular third person liked · past plural liked · past subjunctive liked · participle present liking · participle past liked · alternative lak

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

   I like reading books.

   5 more examples

   I very much like hamburgers.

   I like skiing in winter very much.

   I liked her much better after I got to know her.

   I like it when you sing.

   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

   Antonyms: dislike, hate, mislike, disapprove

   1. archaictransitiveTo please (same meaning as above but with subject and object reversed).

      His countenance likes me not.

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

      1 more example

      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

      Antonyms: dislike, hate, mislike, disapprove

   2. obsoleteTo derive pleasure [with of or by or with ‘from someone or something’].

      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)

      1 more example

      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

      Antonyms: dislike, hate, mislike, disapprove

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

   She likes to keep herself physically fit.

   3 more examples

   I like to go to the dentist every six months.

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

   People in Washington like to work out!

   2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

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

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

   2 more examples

   ― 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

   I was dating someone I liked, but not enough to marry.

   2026 April 22, Jillian Sanders, “The Danger of Surrendering Your Financial Independence in a Relationship”, in TIME, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2026

   Synonyms: fancy, enjoy, love · Antonyms: dislike, hate, mislike

4. To want, desire. See also would like.

   Would you like a cigarette?

   4 more examples

   We could go to the museum if you like.

   May I leave now? ~ If you like.

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

   You can come over whenever you like.

5. Internettransitivesocial mediaTo show support for, or approval of, something posted on the Internet by marking it with a vote.

   I liked my friend's last status on Facebook.

   2 more examples

   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)

   Antonyms: unlike, dislike

6. Of inanimate objects:
   1. informalpersonificationTo be prone to.

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

   2. informalOf a computer or other system: to tolerate as an input; to accept.

      email delivery failed: remote host does not like recipient

      2 more examples

      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.

7. archaicTo come near; to avoid with difficulty; to escape narrowly.

   He liked to have been too late.

   1 more example

   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

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

   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]

9. obsoleteTo liken; to compare.

   And like me to the peasant boys of France.

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

plural likes · alternative lak

1. in pluralSomething that a person likes (prefers).

   Tell me your likes and dislikes.

   Synonyms: favorite, preference · Antonyms: dislike, pet hate, pet peeve

2. InternetAn individual vote showing support for, approval of, or enjoyment of, something posted on the Internet.

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

   2019, “Balenciaga”, performed by Princess Nokia

   2 more examples

   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

   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

comparative more like · archaic comparative liker · superlative most like · archaic superlative likest · alternative lak

1. Similar.

   My partner and I have like minds.

   5 more examples

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

   This apology was made after Hunt's death, and mentioned a revision of the first sketch, so as to render it less like, at the suggestion of two other friends of Hunt. The friends were Procter (Barry Cornwall) and myself; the feeling having been mine from the first that the likeness was too like.

   1872, John Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens

   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

2. ScotlandSouthern USotherwise archaicLikely; probable.

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

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

   3 more examples

   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

   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

3. ScotlandSouthern USusuallyotherwise archaicinclined (to), prone (to).

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

comparative more like · superlative most like · alternative lak

1. colloquialdialectalobsoleteLikely.

   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]

   2 more examples

   “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

2. archaicrareIn a like or similar manner.

   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

plural likes · alternative lak

1. countablesometimesuncountableSomeone similar to a given person, or something similar to a given object; a comparative; a type; a sort.

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

   5 more examples

   This is something the likes of which I've never seen before, and we should compare like with like instead.

   "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 02 Nov 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

2. countableuncountablegolfThe stroke that equalizes the number of strokes played by the opposing player or side.

   to play the like

alternative lak

1. colloquialAs, the way.

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

   1 more example

   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

   1978, Bob Dylan, Do Unto Others

2. colloquialusuallyAs if; as though.

   It seemed like you didn't care.

   3 more examples

   It looks like you've finished the project.

   He didn’t have many friends, it didn’t seem like.

   A too skinny white girl, dressed like some kind of teen-ager although she had to be thirty, with one of those fake white-girl smiles stuck on her face like with scotch tape.

   1981 February 14, Andrea Loewenstein, “Voices in the Night”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 29, page 8

3. colloquialusuallySuch as.

   Why don’t we do something useful like clean the kitchen?

alternative lak

1. Similar to, reminiscent of.

   I’m very like my father.

   5 more examples

   Folk like that I just can’t brook.

   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

2. Typical of.

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

3. Approximating.

   Popcorn costs something like 10 dollars at the movies.

4. In the manner of, similarly to.

   He doesn't act like a president.

5. Such as; including.

   It's for websites like Wikipedia.

   1 more example

   In Mars's office, near his own impressive executive desk (a Vladimir Kagan), hangs a mixed media artwork depicting legendary MCs like Queen Latifah, Slick Rick, Rakim, and Nas (a business partner of Mars's).

   2026 May 28, Lola Ogunnaike, “Major Drama”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, pages 114-115

   Synonyms: for example, such as, as

6. As if there would be.

   It looks like a hot summer in Europe.

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

   What’s the weather like in Ürümqi today?

   2 more examples

   I hear she has a new boyfriend. What's he like? –He's intelligent and handsome.

   What does your mom look like? –She's pretty.

alternative lak

1. GeordieIrelandScotlandTeessidecolloquialLiverpoolA delayed filler.

   He was so angry, like.

   Synonyms: I mean, you know

2. colloquialIndicating approximation or uncertainty.

   There were, like, twenty of them.

   3 more examples

   [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

   he kissed me goodbye on the lips + we like bumped heads + it was very awkward.

   1973 October 30, Lou Sullivan, Diary

   "She's like brand new."

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

   Synonyms: around, about

3. colloquialUsed to precede an approximate quotation or paraphrase or an expression of something that happened.

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

   3 more examples

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

   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, →ISBN, page 108

4. colloquialA discourse marker used to highlight or put focus on new information or a new development in a story.

   She was, like, sooooo happy.

   1 more example

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

   Synonyms: I mean, well, you know

5. colloquialIntroduces an exemplification or demonstration of the previous statement.

   And after a while I began seeing how un-hard the whole scene was. Like they had some kind of raffle + all the hard guys were looking to see if they won + then they announced everyone with a motorcycle cap or a cowboy hat on could get a free drink. How high school!

   1974 January 18, Lou Sullivan, Diary

present singular third person likes · participle present liking · participle past liked · past liked · alternative lak

1. dialectalintransitiveTo be likely.

   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

plural Likes

1. A surname.