▪ I. resemblance, n.1
(rɪˈzɛmbləns)
[a. AF. resemblance (a 1300 in Manuel de Peches 4035) = mod.F. ressemblance: see resemble v. and -ance.]
1. a. The quality or being like or similar; likeness or similarity in appearance or any other respect; the fact of some likeness existing or being present. Freq. const. to, between, or † with; † also in phr. by resemblance or with resemblance.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 122 Libra..hath figure and resemblance Unto a man which a balance Berth in his hond. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 58 This world is ful of stabilnesse,..Verraily by resemblaunce, So as the crabbe gothe forwarde. c 1475 Lament. Mary Magd. xxxiii, The speare with euery naile Thirled my soule by inwarde resemblaunce. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xiii. (Percy Soc.) 51 So is enprynted in his propre mynde Every tale wyth hole resemblaunce. 1598 R. Haydocke tr. Lomazzo i. 61 Anie other Goddesse, which hath any kinde of resemblance with the Earth. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 95 Either sex loose every year their hoofs..that nature may show their resemblance in their feet to a Hart. 1648 Boyle Seraph. Love xvi. (1700) 98 This other Resemblance, betwixt God's Work on us, and the load-stones on the Iron. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxiv. 130 In this also, the Artificiall Man maintains his resemblance with the Naturall. 1718 Free-thinker No. 63. 54 There is not the least Resemblance between Words and Colours. 1771 Junius Lett. lxii. (1788) 331 A vague comparison between two things which have little or no resemblance to each other. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 189 There are always general features of resemblance in the works of contemporary authors. 1855 Prescott Philip II, ii. vii. I. 222 The cap, being red, was thought to bear much resemblance to a cardinal's hat. 1871 Jowett Plato IV. 4 These differences are accompanied by resemblances..to passages in other Platonic writings. |
| Comb. 1748 Richardson Clarissa xciv. VII. 364 My resemblance-forming fancy immediately made it to be him. |
† b. Const. of = to. Obs. (freq. in 17th c.)
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 79 The rocke into which there goeth a tale, that the ship of Vlysses was turned, for the resemblance it hath of such a thing. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 21 An image wherein there might be perceived some resemblance of Pallas. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. viii. §15 The Ideas, produced in us by these secondary Qualities, have no resemblance of them at all. 1793 Cowper Mary 50 Should my future lot be cast With much resemblance of the past. |
† c. Congruity, suitability. Obs. rare—1.
| 1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 64 The Pillars are..coarsly wrought, as seems to become a Country-house, to which nice and finish'd Works bear not so true a resemblance as plain and natural ones. |
† d. to make resemblance, to appear about to do something. Obs. rare—1.
| 1634 Malory's Arthur (1816) I. 231 And therewith he made resemblance [Malory semblaunt] to strike off his head. |
e. Biol. An evolved similarity in appearance between organisms of different species.
| 1862 H. W. Bates in Trans. Linn. Soc. XXIII. 502 Mimetic analogies..are resemblances in external appearance, shape, and colours between members of widely distinct families. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 149/2 Mimetic resemblance is far commoner in the female than in the male, a fact readily explicable by selection, as suggested by Wallace. 1912 Proc. Zool. Soc. 361 Some of the cases of resemblance [of Blattidæ to Coleoptera] are so detailed and close that it is impossible to regard them as anything but examples of true mimicry. 1931, 1951 [see mimicry 2]. 1968 R. D. Martin tr. Wickler's Mimicry ii. 22 One of the most astonishing cases of one species resembling another (interspecific resemblance) occurs in a butterfly of the swallowtail family (Papilionidae) in the species Papilio dardanus. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XII. 214/1 In mimicry the animate agent of selection..interacts directly with at least two of the similar forms and is deceived by their similarity... A convergent resemblance, on the other hand, results from the action of similar forces of natural selection..on unrelated organisms, which may be geographically or temporally isolated from each other. |
2. a. The external appearance, or characteristic features, peculiar to an individual or a class of persons or things.
| 1390 Gower Conf. I. 366 Solyns..seith of fowhles ther is on, Which hath a face of blod and bon, Liche to a man in resemblance. 1483 Caxton Cato A iij, His sone..did do make an ymage to the resemblaunce of hys fader. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. vii. 11 His resemblance being not like the Duke. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. viii. 32 Beautie, which was made to represent The great Creatours owne resemblance bright. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry ii. v. (1611) 49 In ancient roles I find the Bend drawne somewhat Archwise or after the resemblance of the Bent of a Bow. 1636 R. Brathwait Rom. Emp. 339 Very able of body, of a beautifull resemblance. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 96 She..in her Face a Bull's Resemblance bears. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 351 ¶7 [Satan] gliding through the Garden, under the resemblance of a Mist. 1781 Cowper Charity 396 The soul, whose sight all-quickening grace renews, Takes the resemblance of the good she views. 1870 Disraeli Lothair iv, A garden..which..had the resemblance of a vast mosaic. |
† b. in resemblance of, after the likeness or fashion of. Obs. rare.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 294 Thei for evere in remembrance Made a figure in resemblance Of him. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 216 Four other religious places, in resemblance of the Jewish synagogues. Ibid. 217 [Benzo] says, they wash their new born infants, in resemblance of the Mosaic law. |
† c. A specific character or attribute. Obs. rare.
| 1622 Bacon Hen. VII (1876) 22 It did refresh and reflect upon the King a most odious resemblance, as if he would be another King Richard. 1686 tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia Ep. Ded., None of those Magnificent Images of Divinity, are equal to Your Majesty in the Divine Resemblances of Affability, Courtesie, Vigilance..and Constancy. |
† 3. a. A thing having similarity or likeness to another. Obs. rare.
| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 368 Been ther none othere maner resemblances That ye may likne your parables unto, But-if a sely wyf be oon of tho? 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) v. xi. 101 Though the dede were nowhere nyghe soo grete, yett is hit a manere of resemblaunce. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 7 And sayd Sedechias, commonely euery resemblance delyteth other. |
† b. A symbol or figure of something. Obs.
| 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 144 b, Oyle is a resemblaunce of the Holy Ghost. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lvii. §5 We take not baptisme nor the Eucharist for bare resemblances..of things absent. 1659 Hammond On Ps. lxii. 3 So is [it] a fit resemblance to signify him that is ready to kill another. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. i. x. 52 Names are but pictures, shadows, or ressemblances of things. |
† c. A simile or comparison; a thing compared to another. (Cf. 5.) Obs.
| 1624 Bedell Lett. viii. 118 Consider those resemblances taken out of the holy Scripture, wherein that godly Father is frequent. a 1653 Gouge Comm. Heb. xi. 25 These and other like resemblances are fit..in regard of the uncertainty of life; it may on a sudden vanish, as soon as the foresaid resemblances. 1694 W. Holder Princ. Harmony 77 For, (to use a homely resemblance) That our Food..may not cloy the Palate..the Cook finds such kinds..of Sawce, as..please the Palate. |
4. a. A likeness, image, representation or reproduction of some person or thing.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 83 After what forme that hem thoghte, The resemblance anon thei wroghte. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies v. xix. 420 The idoll.. which they called the resemblance of their God. 1631 Weever Anc. Funeral Mon. 812 A marble, vpon which is the resemblance of a man crosse-legged, all in male armour. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 538 Fairest resemblance of thy Maker faire, Thee all things living gaze on. 1697 Bp. Patrick Comm. Exod. xxii. 18 If a Man see any where Waxen Resemblances, made and set either at their Doors [etc.]. 1777 Sir W. Jones Ess. Imit. Arts Poems, etc. 204 What is an imitation, but a resemblance of some other thing? 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. 252 One of these words was an exact resemblance of the word tyrant. 1833 N. Arnott Physics (ed. 5) II. 235 We now understand how an admirable miniature resemblance of the objects before us is produced upon the retina of the eye. |
† b. An appearance or show of some quality; a demonstration of affection; a likelihood or probability. Obs.
| 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. Pref., A certaine vaine resemblance of righteousnesse doeth abundantly content vs in stede of righteousnesse in dede. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vii. 16 He ween'd that his affection entire She should aread; many resemblaunces To her he made, and many kinde remembraunces. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. ii. 203 Pro. But what likeliehood is in that? Duke. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. |
c. A person resembling another in some way; (one's) like. rare—1.
| 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho ix, I shall never meet with his resemblance. |
† 5. Rhet. The action or fact of comparing one person or thing to another. (Cf. 3 c.) Obs.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 250 When we liken an humane person to another in countenaunce, stature, speach or other qualitie, it is not called bare resemblance, but resemblaunce by imagerie or pourtrait. |
▪ II. † reˈsemblance, n.2 Obs. rare—1.
[See resemble v.2]
Assembly.
| 1662 Hobbes Considerations 14 You were also assisting to the Resemblance of Divines that made the Directory. |
▪ III. † reˈsemblance, v. Obs. rare.
[f. n.1]
trans. To resemble. Hence reˈsemblancing ppl. a.
| 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 141 They must needs be taking speciall notice of it..for..a resemblancing configuration, or a prodigious wonder. 1652–62 Heylin Cosmogr. iii. (1673) 24/2 Such a noise..as resemblanceth at a great distance a clap of Thunder. |