Definition
verbTo enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of.
verbTo enjoy, be pleased by; favor; be in favor of., To please (same meaning as above but with subject and object reversed).
Sentence Examples
I've always wondered what it'd be like to have siblings.
It's a word I'd like to find a substitute for.
She's wearing a dress like mine.
Word Origin & History
Verb from Middle English liken, from Old English līcian (“to like, to please”), from Proto-West Germanic *līkēn, from Proto-Germanic *līkāną, from Proto-Indo-European *leyg- (“image; likeness; similarity”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian liekje (“to be similar, resemble”), West Frisian lykje (“to seem, appear, look”), Dutch lijken (“to seem”), Low German lieken (“to be like; resemble”), German gleichen (“to resemble”), Swedish lika (“to like; put up with; align with”), Norwegian like (“to like”), Icelandic and Faroese líka (“to like”).
Noun from Middle English like (“pleasure, will, like”), from the verb Middle English liken (“to like”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"“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, →OCLC:
"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: