vbl. sb. [f. LIKEN v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of making like, or representing as like; assimilation, comparison.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 305/1. Lyknynge, assimilacio.
1632. Sherwood, A likening,… assimilation.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ireland, vi. 104. Protestant likenings of the pope and his flock to the devil and his crew.
1894. Athenæum, 30 June, 835/1. [There is] an unconscious likening of all things to the flowers and hills she loves so well.
† 2. A figure of speech; a comparison, simile. At (the) likening of: under the similitude of.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xxiii. 1. Þe prophet at þe likynynge of a bedel … cries þat [etc.].
1561. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 94 b. A likening is agayne annexed, as bloud.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xxvi. 398. What … are the similitudes of Cicero himselfe in his treatise of old age, but liknings taken from husbandry and Vines?
