From Middle English liknen [and other forms], from liken, from lik + -en.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈlaɪk(ə)n/
• (America) enPR: lī'kən, IPA: /ˈlaɪkən/

liken (likens, present participle likening; simple past and past participle likened)

1. (transitive)
   1. Followed by to or (archaic) unto: to regard or state that (someone or something) is like another person or thing; to compare.

      Antonyms: contrast, unliken

      The physics teacher likened the effect of mass on space to an indentation in a sheet of rubber.

      • 1548 January 28 (Gregorian calendar), Hugh Latimer, “Sermon IV. By the Reverend Father in Christ Master Hugh Latimer Bishop of Worcester. Preached in the Shrouds at Paul’s Church in London the 18th Day of January, in the Year 1548.”, in The Sermons of the Right Reverend Father in God, Master Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester. […], volume I, London: […] J. Scott, […], published 1758, →OCLC ↗, pages 41–42 ↗:

        And vvell may the preacher and plovvman be likened together: Firſt, for their labour in all ſeaſons of the year; for there is no time of the year in vvhich the ploughman hath not ſome ſpecial vvork to do. […] And then they alſo may be likened together for the diverſity of vvorks, and variety of offices that they have to do.

        The spelling has been modernized.

      • 1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “The Life of Sertorius”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC ↗, page 626 ↗:

        Me thinkes therefore, that of all of the Græcian Captaines I can liken none ſo vvell vnto him, as Eumenes the Cardian.

      • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i], page 79 ↗, column 2:

        [T]he Prince broke thy head for lik'ning him to a ſinging man of VVindſor; […]

      • 1667, John Milton, “Book I ↗”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗, lines 484–486:

        [T]he Rebel King / Doubl'd that ſin in Bethel and in Dan, / Lik'ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox, […]

      • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter II. Mr. Lovelace, to Joseph Leman.”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume III, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC ↗, page 26 ↗:

        You vvill then be every one's favourite: and every good ſervant, for the future, vvill be proud to be liken'd to honeſt Joſeph Leman.

      • 1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing Five Pages of Paper”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC ↗, book IV, pages 2–3 ↗:

        That our VVork, therefore, might be in no Danger of being likened to the Labours of theſe Hiſtorians, vve have taken every Occaſion of interſperſing through the vvhole ſundry Similes, Deſcriptions, and other kind of poetical Embelliſhments.

      • 1835 (date written; published 1835 December – 1836 January), Edgar Allan Poe, “Scenes from ‘Politian;' an Unpublished Drama”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850, →OCLC ↗, Act IV, page 69 ↗:

        Why dost thou turn so pale? Not Conscience' self, / Far less a shadow which thou likenest to it, / Should shake the firm spirit thus.

      • 1840, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter I, in Mercedes of Castile: Or, The Voyage to Cathay. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC ↗, page 20 ↗:

        In the name of all the devils, Roderique, of what art thou thinking, that thou likenest this knave to a young noble?

      • 2013 June 18, Chico Harlan, “After Fukushima, Japan beginning to see the light in solar energy”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20221015194155/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/18/japan-solar-energy-fukushima-nuclear-renewable-abe]}, volume 189, number 2, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN ↗, →OCLC ↗, archived from the original ↗ on 2022-10-15, page 30:

        Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."

   2. (also, reflexive, rare) Chiefly followed by to: to make (oneself, someone, or something) resemble another person or thing.

      Antonyms: unliken

      • 1838, Martin Farquhar Tupper, “Of Speaking”, in Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated, London: Joseph Rickerby, […], →OCLC ↗, stanza 1, page 133 ↗:

        Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man, / That likeneth him to his Maker, who spake, and it was done.

   3. (rare) To represent or symbolize (something).
2. (intransitive, obsolete) Followed by to: to be like or resemble; also, to become like.

• French: comparer
• German: vergleichen
• Italian: paragonare
• Portuguese: comparar
• Russian: сра́внивать
• Spanish: comparar