belike
Verb

belike (belikes, present participle beliking; past and past participle beliked)

  1. (transitive) To make like; simulate.
  2. (transitive) To be like; resemble.
Verb

belike (belikes, present participle beliking; past and past participle beliked)

  1. (impersonal) To be pleasing to; please.
    • 1903, The story of King Arthur and his knights:
      Yea," said King Arthur, " it belikes me more than any horse that I ever beheld before." " Then," quoth Queen Morgana, "consider it as a gift of reconciliation betwixt thee and me. [...]"
  2. (transitive) To like; be pleased with.
Noun

belike (plural belikes)

  1. An object of affection or liking.
    She will always be one of my belikes.
Adverb

belike (not comparable)

  1. (archaic or dialectal, Northern England) Likely, probably, perhaps, haply.
    • circa 1589-93 William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV scene iv:
      It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token: / She's dead, belike.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗, partition III, section 1, member 2, subsection iii:
      For that reason, belike, Homer feigns the three Graces to be linked and tied hand in hand, because the hearts of men are so firmly united with such graces.
    • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 558:
      Upon this he brought me a cotton bag and giving it to me, said, "Take this bag and fill it with pebbles from the beach and go forth with a company of the townsfolk to whom I will give a charge respecting thee. Do as they do and belike thou shalt gain what may further thy return voyage to thy native land."
    • 1904, G. K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill
      And when the pedants bade us mark / What cold mechanic happenings / Must come; our souls said in the dark, / "Belike; but there are likelier things."



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