The Collaborative International Dictionary
Like \Like\ (l[imac]k), a. [Compar. Liker (l[imac]k"[~e]r); superl. Likest.] [OE. lik, ilik, gelic, AS. gel[=i]c, fr. pref. ge- + l[=i]c body, and orig. meaning, having the same body, shape, or appearance, and hence, like; akin to OS. gil[=i]k, D. gelijk, G. gleich, OHG. gil[=i]h, Icel. l[=i]kr, gl[=i]kr, Dan. lig, Sw. lik, Goth. galeiks, OS. lik body, D. lijk, G. leiche, Icel. l[=i]k, Sw. lik, Goth. leik. The English adverbial ending-ly is from the same adjective. Cf. Each, Such, Which.]
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Having the same, or nearly the same, appearance, qualities, or characteristics; resembling; similar to; similar; alike; -- often with in and the particulars of the resemblance; as, they are like each other in features, complexion, and many traits of character.
'T is as like you As cherry is to cherry.
--Shak.Like master, like man.
--Old Prov.He giveth snow like wool; he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes.
--Ps. cxlvii. 16.Note: To, which formerly often followed like, is now usually omitted.
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Equal, or nearly equal; as, fields of like extent.
More clergymen were impoverished by the late war than ever in the like space before.
--Sprat. -
Having probability; affording probability; probable; likely.
Usage: [Likely is more used now.]
--Shak.But it is like the jolly world about us will scoff at the paradox of these practices.
--South.Many were not easy to be governed, nor like to conform themselves to strict rules.
--Clarendon. -
Inclined toward; disposed to; as, to feel like taking a walk.
Had like (followed by the infinitive), had nearly; came little short of.
Had like to have been my utter overthrow.
--Sir W. RaleighRamona had like to have said the literal truth, . . . but recollected herself in time.
--Mrs. H. H. Jackson.Like figures (Geom.), similar figures.
Note: Like is used as a suffix, converting nouns into adjectives expressing resemblance to the noun; as, manlike, like a man; childlike, like a child; godlike, like a god, etc. Such compounds are readily formed whenever convenient, and several, as crescentlike, serpentlike, hairlike, etc., are used in this book, although, in some cases, not entered in the vocabulary. Such combinations as bell-like, ball-like, etc., are hyphened.
Usage examples of "like figures".
Slim, waif-like figures in kaftans dotted across a field of green grass and yellow and white flowers.
His eyes narrowed as he watched them walk the road, veiled in dust, like figures in a sun-bleached, threadbare tapestry.
I have glimpsed, like shadows behind the realities, the dim shapes and outlines of valleys, forests, mountains and lakes that are not as they are today, but as they were in that dim yesterday - have even sensed, rather than glimpsed, the purple towers of forgotten Python shimmering like figures of mist in the dusk.
Strange sphinx-like figures with complicated horns on their heads and wings on their backs are clearly visible and their posture shows them to be aspiring skywards.
The dancers were motionless, frozen in various attitudes of pursuit and withdrawal, like figures on an urn.
Boats were smashed, funnels were buckled, bridges and deck-houses were crushed out of shape: men disappeared overboard without trace and without a cry, sponged out of life like figures wiped from a blackboard at a single imperious stroke.
They had managed so far this evening to be purely formal with each other, rigidly playing their official roles, king and ambassador, ambassador and king, like figures on a frieze, for the sake of keeping the troublesome past that lay between them from breaking through and disturbing the niceties of their diplomatic calculations.
Those who walked the rasping white surface-Dirdir, Dirdirmen, common laborers in gray cloaks-seemed artificial and unreal, like figures in classical perspective exercises.
Green re-entered the room so silently that I started guiltily, as if I had been caught at some indiscretion by examining even in a desultory way the life-like figures created by the celebrated John Rogers.
The white woman on the bed had opened her eyes, and was staring at them, and in an instant the room and the bed and the boy and the tinker's wife had folded up like figures in a child's pop-up book, and shrunk out of sight, a rectangle of patterned darkness flying in the wind.