Forms: 1–2 lícian, 2–3 likie(n, 3 lykyen, 3–5 li-, lyken, -in, -y(n, (4 likke, lykky), 4–7 lyke, Sc. and north. lik, (5 lykey, lijk, leke), 6–7 leeke, (7 lyk), 4– like. Also Y-LIKE. [OE. lícian = OFris. likia, OS. lîkôn (Du. lijken), OHG. lîhhên, lîchên, ON. líka, Goth. leikan:—OTeut. *līkǣjan, *līkōjan, f. *līko- body (orig. appearance, form): see LICH sb.]
1. intr. To please, be pleasing, suit a person. Chiefly quasi-trans. with dative; † in early use also const. to, till. Also impers. as in it likes me = I am pleased, it is my pleasure to do so-and-so. Now only arch. and dial.
971. Blickl. Hom., 129. Æʓhwylc man, sy þær eorðan þær he sy, þurh gode dæda Gode lician sceal.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xxvii. 14. Heo hit ʓearwode, swa heo wiste þæt his fæder licode.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 63. God … ȝife us swa his wil to donne þet we gode likie and monne.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 29. Þane he wile don oðer queðen hwat him þanne licað after defles lore.
c. 1205. Lay., 8746. Hit þe likede wel þat þu us adun læidest.
1340. Ayenb., 187. Efterward ase merci likeþ to god alsuo hit ne likeþ noþing to þe dyeule.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. pr. vi. 108 (Camb. MS.). The victories cawse lykede to the goddes and the cause ouercomen lykede to catoun.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 505. It likit till his will.
1413. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), V. xii. 103. This is my loued sone that lyketh me.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 31. Take Porke or Beef, wheþer þe lykey, & leche it þinne þwerte.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xix. 267. Chese the seers which of tho answers to hem lijkith.
1535. Coverdale, Esther i. 8. The kynge had commanded … that euery one shulde do as it lyked him.
1577. Harrison, England, II. ix. (1877), I. 201. To give his roiall consent to such statutes as him liketh of.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. i. 100. Like it your Grace, The State takes notice.
1627. E. F., Hist. Edw. II. (1680), 87. How that way may like you, that I know not.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 405. There they are free, And howl and war as likes them, uncontroul’d.
a. 1850. Rossetti, Dante & Circle (1874), I. 41. I rode sullenly Upon a certain path that liked me not.
† b. simply. To be pleasing, be liked or approved. Obs.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., xviii. § 3 (Sedgefield). Forðy sceolde ælc mon bion on ðæm wel ʓehealden þæt he on his aʓnum earde licode.
c. 1315. Shoreham, Poems (E.E.T.S.), 98/13. Senne hys swete and lykeþ, Wanne a man hi deþ.
1388. Wyclif, Gen. xvi. 6. Lo! thi seruantesse is in thin hond; vse thou hir as it likith.
1616. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, Prol. If this Play doe not like, the Diuell is in ’t.
c. To like well or ill: to be pleasing or the reverse.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 4029. Ille liked ðanne balaac Euerilc word ðe prest balaam spac.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11829. Him þoȝte þe wide contreie wolde him liki bet.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 76. Wan he was war of þe frenschemen on h[ert] him likid ille.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 18. My fader asked me ‘how likithe you?’… And y tolde my fader how me liked.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., IV. i. I 5. Ile dispose them [women] as it likes me best.
1596. Danett, trans. Comines (1614), 61. They sallied foorth where liked them best by the breaches thereof.
1608. Yorksh. Trag., I. iii. Good Sir, keep but in patience, and I hope my words shall like you well.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 353. They … colour, shape or size Assume, as likes them best.
1668. Pepys, Diary, 22 Nov. My boy’s livery is come home … and it likes me well enough.
1680. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 222. Either with Moldings or other Work upon it, as best likes them.
1799. Wordsw., Ruth, 209. Where it liked her best she sought Her shelter.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. xv. At first in heart it liked me ill.
1832. Arnold, Serm., II. 320. If there be no God,… let us eat and drink, or follow what likes us best.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xii. 103. I wish any respected bachelor that reads this may take the sort that best likes him.
† 2. refl. and intr. for refl. To please oneself, take pleasure, delight in (something). Obs.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter xxxvi. 4. Like in Laverd.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19231. Ilk suik it-self bisuikes, And lethes mast þat þar-in likes. Ibid., 28336. I ha me liked ai vm-quile In vnnait wordes.
1340. Ayenb., 177. Me zeneȝeþ wel ofte … be þe nase ine to moche him to liky in guode smelles.
1549. Chaloner, Erasm. on Folly, F ij b. Yet dooe these my old gurles not a little lyke their selves herein.
3. intr. To be pleased or glad. To like ill: to be displeased or sad. Now only Sc.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 500. Þerl for him sori was, Ther liked non in that plas.
c. 1320. Sir Tristrem, 1151. Þei marke liked ille.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 618. And Adam Spencer liked right ille.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxvii. 114. Year all heuy and lykyt yll here in this way.
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 39. Be that it drew to the nicht, The King lykit ill.
1896. J. Balfour Paul, in N. & Q., Ser. VIII. X. 485/2. I should like if Mr. Reid would be good enough to inform us if the note-book states [etc.].
† 4. To be in good condition; to get on, do well, thrive. Chiefly with adv., well, better, etc.
c. 1325. Poem times Edw. II. (Percy), xliv. Thi maystre is i-wonne And lyketh.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 53. It may fortune there be some [sheep] that like not and be weike.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 33. It [the beech tree] … liketh best being sowne in moyst grounds.
1584. Cogan, Haven Health, cxciv. (1636), 176. Children … live and like better with that [milk], than with any other thing.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 92 (Qo. 1600). By my troth, you like [1623 looke] well, and beare your yeeres very well.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 500. Trees generally do like best that stand to the Northeast wind.
1615. W. Lawson, Country Housew. Garden (1626), 3. We meddle not with Apricocks nor Peaches, nor scarcely with Quinches, which will not like in our cold parts, vnlesse [etc.].
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., I. iv. The Cattle … like as well with it.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., Malta, 296. Indigo … agrees with the soil, and likes and thrives there very well.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xxxviii. § 4 (1689), 245. The Ponds where they like well.
5. To derive pleasure of, occas. by, with (a person or thing); to approve of, become fond of. Also with adv. (well or ill). Obs. exc. dial.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 3124. Of this message he liked yll.
1465. Paston Lett., II. 186. I understode he lykyd not by hys dysposicyon.
1579–80. North, Plutarch, Lycurgus (1595), 63. To see his notable lawes … so well established and liked of by experience.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur. (1599), A 4 b. Daughter like of whome thou please.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., ¶ 2. But was that his magnificence liked of by all?
1643. Slingsby, Diary (1836), 98. He … began to like better of his employment.
1672. Sir C. Lyttelton, in Hatton Corr. (1878), 100. Ye King likes soe well of Sr T. L. that [etc.].
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xxv. (1824), 419. Opinions, by no means liked of by the Bishop Cheney. Ibid., II. xliv. (1824), 167. They hoped … that their prince … would like well with this their doing.
1764. Burn, Poor Laws, 77. If any beggar’s child … shall be liked of by any subject of this realm of honest calling.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Like of, to approve. ‘My master will not like of it.’
1854. Miss Baker, Northamptonsh. Gloss., I. 397. I daredn’t do’t; my master wouldn’t like of it.
6. trans. (The current sense.) To find agreeable or congenial; to feel attracted to or favorably impressed by (a person); to have a taste or fancy for, take pleasure in (a thing, an action, a condition, etc.). In early use often to like well (now arch. in this form, though we say freely to like very, pretty well, and to like better or best), and antithetically to like ill (arch.) = to dislike.
As used with reference to persons, the vb. is often contrasted (as expressing a weaker sentiment) with love.
The two earliest quots. may belong to sense 1.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 95. Mildheorted beð þe man þe reouþ his nehȝebures unselðe, and likeð here alre selðe.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 2039. Conan þe kinges neueu ne likede noȝt þis game.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1076, Dido. And for he was a straunger sumwhat sche Likede hym the bet.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 1015. Be that schir Wawane the wy likit the wer.
1530. Palsgr., 611/2. I can nat lyke hym better than I do.
1587. T. Howell, Deuises (1879), 200. Wante makes the Lyon stowte, a slender pray to leeke.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. ix. 24. Yet every one her likte, and every one her lov’d.
a. 1592. H. Smith, Serm. (1637), 338. He which would have chosen the best, yet liked another before him.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., XI. lxvii. (1612), 285. With women, that no lesse attract our senses them to leeke.
1672. Milton, P. R., IV. 171. I never lik’d thy talk, thy offers less, Now both abhor.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 79, ¶ 4. My Lover does not know I like him.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1823), III. 237. Where a man neither loves nor likes the thing he believes.
1741. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Mr. Wortley, 5 Nov. The people here [Geneva] are very well to be liked.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 210. He likes your house, your housemaid, and your pay.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxviii. Maybe ye may like the ewe-milk … cheese better.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxiii. I may like him well enough; but you don’t love your servants.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 50. Most persons say that lawgivers should make such laws as the people like.
B. absol.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., III. ii. 7. If you like elsewhere doe it by stealth. Ibid. (1595), John, II. i. 511. If he see ought in you that makes him like.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 583. Till in the Amorous Net Fast caught, they lik’d, and each his liking chose.
a. 1742. J. Hammond, Love Elegies, vii. They met, they lik’d, they stay’d but till alone.
1808. Scott, Marm., V. Introd. Looking [he] liked, and liking loved.
c. With direct obj. and inf. or complementary pa. pple. or adj., or (now rarely) a clause introduced by that.
1534. More, On the Passion, Wks. 1290/2. Such as are lerned, will like also, that [etc.].
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, V. xxx. Less lik’d he still, that scornful jeer Mispris’d the land he lov’d so dear.
1842. J. H. Newman, Lett. (1891), II. 393. Would he like the subject discussed in newspapers?
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xlv. It was Blanche who … asked him … whether he liked women to hunt?
1887. S. Colvin, Keats, viii. 207. The sonatas of Haydn were the music he liked Severn best to play to him.
d. With inf. as obj.: To find it agreeable, feel inclined to do or be so and so. Often somewhat idiomatically in conditional use, to express a desire, as I should like (= F. je voudrais bien, G. ich möchte gern); often derisively in I should like to see—(intimating that what is referred to is impossible), I should like to know (implying that the question has no natural answer). Also with ellipsis of inf., as in to do as one likes.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 5528. Ȝe þat liken in loue swiche þinges to here.
c. 1440. Generydes, 2010. Do as ȝe leke, for this is my councell.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 11. Who so lykes to luk it oure.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, I. 33. Quha likis till haif mar knawlage in that part.
1528. Gardiner, in Pocock, Rec. Ref., I. l. 112. His holiness for pastime liked well to hear thereof.
1568. Satir. Poems Reform., xlviii. 1. Off cullouris cleir quha lykis to weir, Ar sindry sortis in to this toun.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 152. Euerie ane mycht marie how mony wyfes he lyket.
1611. Bible, Rom. i. 28. They did not like [Gr. οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν] to retaine God in their knowledge.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 22 Aug. I had liked to have begged a parrot for my wife.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 50. He may either go or stay, as he best likes.
1694. Atterbury, Serm. (1726), I. 191. He is already under the Dominion and Power of his own Lusts, and perhaps likes to be so.
1819. Shelley, Julian & Mad., 199. If you would like to go, We’ll visit him.
1830. Macaulay, Rob. Montgomery, Ess. (1872), 130. What, we should like to know, is the difference between the two operations which Mr. Robert Montgomery so accurately distinguishes from each other…? Ibid. (1831), in Life, I. 233. I should have liked to have sate through so tremendous a storm.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxii. [Mr. Gunter threatens to throw Mr. Noddy out of window] ‘I should like to see you do it, sir,’ said Mr. Noddy.
1859. Mill, Liberty, v. 187. A person should be free to do as he likes in his own concerns.
1868. Bain, Mental & Mor. Sci., IV. xi. 406. To say we can be virtuous if we like, is [etc.].
1874. Ruskin, Fors Clav., xxxix. 68. I should like to have somebody for a help.
1884. Manch. Exam., 28 May, 5/2. Those critics … who maintain that we are free to do as we like in Egypt.
e. Often used, esp. with conditional auxiliary, for like to have.
1822. Shelley, Faust, ii. 1. Would you not like a broomstick?
Mod. I should like more time to consider the matter. Would you like the arm-chair?
f. The neutral sense inferable from the qualified uses, to like well or ill (see above), survives in the interrogative use with how, as in ‘How do you like my new gown?,’ ‘How would you like to be called a fool to your face?,’ etc.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. v. 77. How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio’s wife?
1606. Day, Ile of Guls, B 4 b. Boy, how doost like me in this attyre?
1727. Boyer, Fr. Dict., s.v. Trouver, Comment le trouvez-vous? How do you like it?
1819. Shelley, Cyclops, 532. How does the God like living in a skin?
1860. Tennyson, Sea Dreams, 194. How like you this old satire?
¶ g. In the colloquial half-jocular expression, used of an article of food or the like, ‘I like it, but it does not like me’ (i.e., does not suit my health), the use seems to be a mere perversion of sense 6, and not directly connected with sense 1.
1899. H. Frederic, Market-place, xxiii. 307. He liked the water, and the water liked him…. He decided that he would have a yacht.
