like¹ (līk)

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[Middle English liken, from Old English līcian, to please.]

verb: liked, lik·ing, likes. 

transitive verb 

1. To find pleasant or attractive; enjoy.
2. To want to have: would like some coffee.
3. To feel about; regard: How do you like her nerve!
4. Archaic To be pleasing to.

intransitive verb 

1. To have an inclination or a preference: If you like, we can meet you there.
2. Scots To be pleased.

noun 

Something that is liked; a preference: made a list of his likes and dislikes.

like² (līk)

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[Middle English, from like, similar (from Old English gelīc) (Old Norse līkr), and from like, similarly (from Old English gelīce) (from gelīc, similar).]

prep. 

1. Possessing the characteristics of; resembling closely; similar to.
2. 1. In the typical manner of: It's not like you to take offense.
   2. 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.

conj. 

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.

idioms

be like

To say or utter. Used chiefly in oral narration: And he's like, “Leave me alone!”

usage note

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 aslikewe 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 Note at: as See Usage Note at: together

like³ (līk),
also liked (līkt)

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[Middle English liken, to compare, from like, similar; see like².]

aux.v. 

Used with a past infinitive or with to and a simple past form to indicate being just on the point of or coming near to having done something in the past: “I like to a split a gut laughin'.” “It seemed as how nobody had thought about measurin' the width of the bridge's openin', and we like to didn't make it through” (Dictionary of American Regional English)