-like
suffix, forming adjs. and advs. In strictness, the words containing this suffix are compounds of like a. and adv., in the senses in which these words govern a dative or are followed by an adj. (see like a. 1 b, like adv. 1, 3). The compounds so formed not unfrequently resemble in sense the derivatives formed with -lik(e, ME. dial. form of -ly1, -ly2, but the two formations are entirely distinct: thus ME. gredilike adv. (= greedily) is not the same word as the mod. Sc. greedy-like.
1. Appended to ns. a. Forming adjs. with the general sense ‘similar to —’, ‘characteristic of, befitting —’. Early examples are circlelyk (a 1420), chieftainlike (c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 489), devil-like (c 1470), godlike (1513), bishoplike (1544), flesh-like (1552). The suffix may now be appended to almost all ns., including proper names; in formations intended as nonce-words, or not generally current, the hyphen is ordinarily used.
Some particular writers have shown an extraordinary fondness for words of this formation; e.g. more than 60 occur in Bailey's Festus.
| 1598 Dallington Meth. Trav. S iij b, Making Hidalgo⁓like Rhodomontades. 1603 Dekker Grissil (Shaks. Soc.) 5 Then can you blame me to be hunter like, When I must get a wife? 1607 R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders 188 The testimonies which themselues giue of their Sardanaple-like sobriety. 1784 R. Bage Barham Downs I. 100 An unaccountable unquality-like fit of the spleen. 1823 in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. 151 The professor thought this conduct extremely rude and ungoldsmithlike. 1825 Greenhouse Comp. II. 38 Their leaves and habits are so salad- and kitchen-garden-like, that we cannot recommend them. Ibid. II. 84 A low shrub, with heath- or fir-like leaves. 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 758/1 He gave an Egan-like description of a pugilistic encounter. 1839 Bailey Festus (1852) 286 And swore to make all souls Believe alike in clockworklike content. 1849 Noad Electricity 189 That plumbago-like substance found lining the interior of long-used coal-gas retorts. 1857 E. FitzGerald Lett. (1889) I. 263 June over! A thing I think of with Omar-like sorrow. 1866 W. Aitken Sci. & Pract. Med. II. 578 If the noise..is that of a friction-murmur, soft and bellows-like. 1901 Academy 13 July 29/2 Strong, cudgel-like Anglo-Saxon words. |
b. Forming advs. with the sense ‘in or after the manner of —’, ‘so as to resemble —’. Early instances are fellowlike (c 1530), gentlemanlike (1542), phraselike (1549), bishoplike (1555). These advs., and the method of formation, are now perh. to be regarded as obsolete or at least archaistic, the apparent examples in recent use being explicable as quasi-advb. uses of the adj.; at least, the advs. or quasi-advs. are now employed only to characterize the subject of the sentence, not, as formerly, to indicate the manner of an action. In accordance with this change of signification, -like in the quasi-adverbial use now takes optionally a second principal stress, and is nearly always hyphened.
| 1564–78 W. Bullein Dial. agst. Pest. (1888) 80 This is a comely parlour, very netly and trimely apparrelled, London like. 1576 Gascoigne Philomene (Arb.) 104 She..drest hir Bacchus like. 1624 D. Cawdrey Humilitie 39 How vainely and garishly (popingaye-like) are our men and women attired? 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. xii. (1840) 255 How..coward-like they had behaved. [1768 W. Donaldson Life Sir B. Sapskull I. 71 His father..(dotard like) seem'd fully satisfy'd. 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 768/2 Mr. Justice Rivers, Brutus-like, was constrained in justice to condemn. 1871 Browning Pr. Hohenst. 97 Only continue patient while I throw Delver-like, spadeful after spadeful up.] |
2. Appended to adjs. a. Forming adjs. In Sc. the suffix is added freely to almost any descriptive adj., esp. those relating to mental qualities, conditions of temper, or the like; the general sense of the compounds is ‘having the appearance of being —’. In Eng. use the formation is not common, and the sense is usually ‘resembling, or characteristic of, one who is —’, as in genteel-like, human-like.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 694 Schir Rawff Gray saw at thai war Sotheron leik. Ibid. x. 210 ‘Allace’, he said, ‘the warld is contrar lik!’ 1587 Fleming Cont. Holinshed III. 1355/1 Of countenance amiable, and complexion English like. 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 182 Twas not sillines he saw, that made that innocent-like fashion shew in me. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vi. 264 Wee found twelue Venerable like Turkes, ready to receiue vs. 1639 [see alive-like]. 1724 Ramsay Vision iv, A man..Richt auld lyke, and bauld lyke. 1789 A. Wilson Let. in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876) I. 48 John's grim-like smile. 1825 Ld. Cockburn Mem. ii. 110 It was a low square-like room. 1825 Greenhouse Comp. II. 15 A low herbaceous-like shrub. 1827 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 357, I think Peter's looking auld-like. 1839 Bailey Festus (1852) 389 Their sublime-like beauty. 1866 Aitken Sci. & Pract. Med. II. 719 A gluey-like material. 1910 A. H. Adams Galahad Jones 208 I'd be useful-like to keep a look out. 1937 M. Scott Barbara Prospers 214 Her bein' shaky-like. 1953 ‘N. Blake’ Dreadful Hollow 38 We have a stronger parson now—more active-like. |
b. Forming advs. With the sense ‘like one who is —’. Obs. exc. in Sc., where the sense of the advs. is rather ‘so as to appear —’.
Chiefly in contexts where the word might admit of being taken as adj.; cf. 1 b.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 577 All his four men bar thaim quietlik. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke 154 b, With suche pompe as this, triumphaunt lyke, and with such a trayne about him, did the Lord Iesus goe vnto Hierusalem. 1594 Warres Cyrus 1646 The Goddesse turnde her face, offending-like, frowning with angrie brows. 1681 Rycaut Critick 182 You, Phrygian, or inconsiderate like, replied Critilo, propound late Remedies. 1682 Songs & Ball. (Percy Soc.) 126 When thundering like we strike about. a 1903 Mod. Sc. Dinna rug at it sae rochlike [= roughly], or ye'll brak it. 1895 A. A. Grace Maoriland Stories 105, I suppose you won't care to stop the night with a chap, friendly-like. 1907 W. H. Koebel Return of Joe 50 Things seemed panning out so strange-like. 1967 Observer 10 Sept. 17/3, I went out with her, but all the coloured girls began to look at me weird-like: I had to pack it up quick. |