interrog. a. (sb.) arch. and dial. (Also as two words.) [orig. Sc.: f. WHAT pron. + LIKE a. (q.v. 1 b ¶), as in ‘What is he like?,’ after SUCH-LIKE.] Of what appearance or aspect. (Usually predicative.)
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xi. I should be glad to know myself what like the fellow was.
1857. Jas. Hamilton, Less. Gt. Biog., 309. It would be interesting to know what like man was in the primeval paradise.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., ix. What like is Miss Havisham?
1876. Morris, Æneids, I. 751. Meanwhile unhappy Dido … asked … With what-like arms Aurora’s son had come unto the King.
b. as sb. Aspect, appearance. nonce-use.
1853. C. C. Leitch, in Mem. (1856), 125. The … questions of the whereabouts and the what-like of a new bungalow.
