liken

From Middle English liknen (“to compare; to be comparable, be equal; to form; to be appropriate”), equivalent to like +‎ -en.

• enPR: lī'kən, IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪkən/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪkən
• Homophones: lichen, lycan

liken (third-person singular simple present likens, present participle likening, simple past and past participle likened)

1. (transitive, followed by to or unto) To compare; to state that (something) is like (something else).
   • 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, 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."

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book IV:

     That our work, therefore, might be in no danger of being likened to the labours of these historians, we have taken every occasion of interspersing through the whole sundry similes, descriptions, and other kind of poetical embellishments.

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

• (to state something is like another): contrast

• “liken”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• Elkin, Klein, Klien, Kline, inkle, k-line, kline, lekin

Borrowed from English like.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɑi̯kə(n)/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: li‧ken

liken

1. (Internet) to like (on social media)

   Hebben jullie mijn pagina al geliket?

   Have you already liked my page?

Borrowed from English like + -en.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ̯kn̩/

• Audio

  (file)

liken (weak, third-person singular present likt or (proscribed) liket, past tense likte or (proscribed) likete, past participle gelikt or (proscribed) geliket or (proscribed) geliked, auxiliary haben)

1. (transitive, social media) to like

   Coordinate term: faven

   • 2012, Claudia Hilker, Erfolgreiche Social-Media-Strategien für die Zukunft: Mehr Profit durch Facebook, Twitter, Xing und Co., Linde Verlag GmbH, →ISBN, page 94:

     Was Facebook-User liken und warum Der Like-Button hat die Online-Welt wie kein zweites Element revolutioniert.

     What Facebook users like, and why the like button has revolutionised the online world like no other element.

   • 2012, Tim Sebastian, Facebook Fanpages Plus, mitp Verlags GmbH & Co. KG, →ISBN, page 22:

     Egal ob Sie etwas schreiben, kommentieren oder liken, tun Sie dies im Namen der Fanpage.

     No matter whether you write something, comment, or like, do this in the name of the fanpage.

   • 2014, Markus Pfeifer, Facebook - Kommunikation und Interaktion mit dem Kunden: Eine Facebook-Marketing Analyse zu den Top 13 österreichischen Biermarken bezugnehmend auf die Interaktion und den Einfluss auf die Facebook Welt, Bachelor + Master Publication, →ISBN, page 50:

     Es wurde die Möglichkeit untersucht, ob ein Minderjähriger Facebook-User überhaupt die Befugnis hat bei den 13 auserwählten Bier Unternehmen deren Facebook-Seiten zu liken.

     It was checked whether an underage Facebook user actually had the ability to like the Facebook sites of the 13 selected beer companies.

   • 2014, Wolfgang H. Weinrich, Der liebe Gott kommt nicht voran, unnumbered page

     Bin ich dann einer unter vielen und muss darauf warten, wer meine Follower sind und wer mich liked oder gar linkt?

     Am I then one among many, and must I pay attention to who my followers are and who likes me or even links me?

   • 2014, Katherine Womser, Wenn Fernsehen alleine nicht genug ist, page 183

     Das war halt so wie man bei Facebook was postet und keiner antwortet und keiner liked das.

     That was like if you posted something on Facebook and no-one answeres or likes it.

   • 2023 January 11, Paul Weinheimer, “Ausstellung „Flying Foxes“: Kapitalismuskritik mit Megayacht”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎, ISSN 0931-9085:

     Jeder Beitrag wird „gelikt“, danach wird weiter gewischt: Die Rolle der Use­r*in übernimmt ein Bot, er likt und scrollt.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

• Duden recommends conjugating the verb as if it were a standard German weak verb with the hypothetical stem lik-.[1] However, irregular conjugations that preserve some or all of the features of English grammar, especially the terminal e, are common.

• Like

• faken, saven, timen

• “liken” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “liken” in Duden online
• “liken” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “liken” in OpenThesaurus.de
• “liken”, in Online-Wortschatz-Informationssystem Deutsch (in German), Mannheim: Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, 2008–

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːkən/

liken

1. Alternative form of geliken

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

From Old Dutch līcon, from Proto-West Germanic *līkēn, from Proto-Germanic *līkāną.

liken

1. to please, (in archaic English usage) to like

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: lijken

• “liken”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “liken (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

• likin, likien, licen, licien (early)

From Old English līcian, from Proto-West Germanic *līkēn.

• IPA^(key): /ˈliːkən/

liken

1. To like.

• English: like
• Scots: like
• Yola: lick, licke, lik

• “līken, v.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

liken

1. definite singular of like.
2. definite plural of lik

• e.likn., kilen

liken

1. plural of lyk