| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| like2 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  l k |
| PREPOSITION: | 1. Possessing the characteristics of; resembling closely; similar to. 2a. In the typical manner of: It's not like you to take offense. b. In the same way as: lived like royalty. 3. Inclined or disposed to: felt like running away. 4. As if the probability exists for: looks like a bad year for farmers. 5. Such as; for example: saved things like old newspapers and pieces of string. | | ADJECTIVE: | 1. Possessing the same or almost the same characteristics; similar: on this and like occasions. 2. Alike: They are as like as two siblings. 3. Having equivalent value or quality. Usually used in negative sentences: There's nothing like a good night's sleep. | | ADVERB: | 1. In the manner of being; as if. Used as an intensifier of action: worked like hell; ran like crazy. 2. Informal Probably; likely: Like as not she'll change her mind. 3. Nearly; approximately: The price is more like 1,000 dollars. 4. Nonstandard Used to provide emphasis or a pause: Like let's get going. | | NOUN: | 1. One similar to or like another. Used with the: was subject to coughs, asthma, and the like. 2. Informal An equivalent or similar person or thing; an equal or match. Often used in the plural: I've never seen the likes of this before. We'll never see his like again. | | CONJUNCTION: | Usage Problem 1. In the same way that; as: To dance like she does requires great discipline. 2. As if: It looks like we'll finish on time. | | IDIOM: | be like Informal To say or utter. Used chiefly in oral narration: And he's like, “Leave me alone!” | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from like, similar (from Old English gelc and Old Norse lkr) and from like, similarly (from Old English gelce, from gelc, similar); see lk- in Appendix I. | | USAGE NOTE: | Writers since Chaucer's time have used like as a conjunction, but 19th-century and 20th-century critics have been so vehement in their condemnations of this usage that a writer who uses the construction in formal style risks being accused of illiteracy or worse. Prudence requires The dogs howled as (not like) we expected them to. Like is more acceptably used as a conjunction in informal style with verbs such as feel, look, seem, sound, and taste, as in It looks like we are in for a rough winter. But here too as if is to be preferred in formal writing. There can be no objection to the use of like as a conjunction when the following verb is not expressed, as in He took to politics like a duck to water. See Usage Notes at as1, together. | | OUR LIVING LANGUAGE: | Along with be all and go, the construction combining be and like has become a common way of introducing quotations in informal conversation, especially among younger people: “So I'm like, ‘Let's get out of here!’” As with go, this use of like can also announce a brief imitation of another person's behavior, often elaborated with facial expressions and gestures. It can also summarize a past attitude or reaction (instead of presenting direct speech). If a woman says “I'm like, ‘Get lost buddy!’” she may or may not have used those actual words to tell the offending man off. In fact, she may not have said anything to him but instead may be summarizing her attitude at the time by stating what she might have said, had she chosen to speak. See Notes at all, go1.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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