Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LIGN-AL'OES, n. [L. lignum, wood, and aloes.]

Aloes wood. Num. xxiv.

LIG'NE-OUS, a. [L. ligneus.]

Wooden; made of wood; consisting of wood; resembling wood. The harder part of a plant ts ligneous.

LIG-NI-FI-CA'TION, n.

The process of becoming or of converting into wood, or the hard substance of a vegetable. Good.

LIG'NI-FI-ED, pp.

Converted into wood.

LIG'NI-FORM, a. [L. lignum, wood, and form.]

Like wood; resembling wood. Kirwan.

LIG'NI-FY, v.i.

To become wood.

LIG'NI-FY, v.t. [L. lignum, wood, and facio, to make.]

To convert into wood.

LIG'NI-FY-ING, ppr.

Converting into wood.

LIG'NIN, n. [L.lignum, wood.]

In chimistry, the woody part or fiber of plants.

LIG'NITE, n. [L. lignum.]

Fossil or bituminous wood, a mineral combustible substance. Dict. Nat. Hist.

LIG'NOUS, a.

Ligneous. [Little used.] Evelyn.

LIG'NUM-VI-TAE, n. [L.]

The popular name of Guaiacum officinale or poxwood. The common Lignum-vitae is a native of the warm latitudes of America. It becomes a large tree, having a hard, brownish, brittle bark, and its wood firm, solid, ponderous, very resinous, of a blackish yellow color in the middle, and of a hot aromatic taste. It is of considerable use in medicine and the mechanical arts, being wrought into utensils, wheels, cogs, and various articles of turnery. Encyc.

LIG'U-LATE, or LIG'U-LA-TED, a. [L. ligula, a strap.]

Like a bandage or strap; as, a ligulate flower, a species of compound-flower, the florets of which have their corollets flat, spreading out toward the end, with the base only tubular. This is the semiflosculous flower of Tournefort. Botany.

LIGULE, n. [L.ligula, a strap.]

1. In botany, the flat part of the leaf of a grass, in contradistinction from that part which sheathes the stem.
2. A strap-shaped petal of a flower.

LIG'URE, n.

A kind of precious stone. Exod. xxviii.

LIG'U-RITE, n. [from Liguria.]

A mineral occurring in oblique rhombic prisms, of an apple-green color, occasionally speckled Phillips.

LIKE, a. [Sax. lic, gelic, Goth. leiks, D. lyk, gclyk, G. gleich, Sw. lik, Dan. lig, lige, like, plain, even, equal, smooth. The sense of like, similar, is even, smooth, equal, but this sense may be from laying, pressing, and hence this word may be allied to the Eth. {foreign} lakeo, to stamp, seal, impress, whence its derivative, an image; or the sense be taken from rubbing or shaving. We observe that like has also the sense of please; to like is, to be pleased. Now, if p in L. placeo, is a prefix, the latter may be formed on the root of like. And if de is a prefix, in delight, detect, delicious, delicate, these may be of the same family. Like is evidently from the same root as the Ch. and Heb. {foreign}, Ar. {foreign} chalaka, to be or make smooth. Qu. Gr. {foreign}, {foreign}. See Lick and Lickerish.]

1. Equal in quantity, quality or degree; as, a territory of like extent with another; men of like excellence. More clergymen were impoverished by the late war, than ever in the like space before. Sprat.
2. Similar; resembling; having resemblance. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are. James v. Why might not other planets, have been created for like uses with the earth, each for its own inhabitants. Bentley. Like is usually followed by to but it is often omitted. What city Is like to this great city? Rev. xvv. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs. Rev. xvi. Among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Dan. i.
3. Probable; likely, that is, having the resemblance or sppcatauco of an event; giving reason to expect or believe. He is like to die of hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread. Jer. xxxviii. Many were not easy to be governed, not like to conform themselves to strict rules. Clarendon.

LIKE, adv.

1. In the same manner. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matth. vi. Luke xii. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Ps. ciii.
2. In a manner becoming. Be strong, and quit yourselves like men. Sam. iv.
3. Likely; probably; as, like enough it will. Shak.

LIKE, n. [elliptically, for like thing, like event, like person.]

1. Some person or thing resembling another; an equal. The like may never happen again. He was a man, take him for all and all, I shall not look upon his like again. Shak.
2. Had like, in the phrase, “he had like to be defeated,” seems to be a corruption; but perhaps like here is used for resemblance or probability, and has the character of a noun. At any rate, as a phrase, it is authorized by good usage.

LIKE, v.i.

1. To be pleased; to choose. He may go or stay as he likes. Locke.
2. To like of, to he pleased. [Obs.] Knolls.

LIKE, v.t. [Sax. licean, lician; Goth. leikan; probably L. placeo and delecto, with prefixes.]

1. To be pleased with in a moderate degree; to approve. It expresses less than love and delight. We like a plan or design, when we approve of it as correct or beneficial. We like the character or conduct of a man when it comports with our view of rectitude. We like food that the taste relishes. We like whatever gives us pleasure. He proceeded from looking to liking, and from liking to loving. Sidney.
2. To please; to be agreeable to. This desire being recommended to her majesty, it liked her to include the same within one entire lease. [Obs.] Bacon.
3. To liken. [Obs.]

LIKE'LI-HOOD, n. [likely and hood.]

1. Probability; verisimilitude; appearance of truth or reality. There is little likelihood that an habitual drunkard will become temperate. There is little likelihood that an old offender will be reformed. Prudence directs us not to undertake a design, when there is little or no likelihood of success.
2. Appearance; show; resemblance. [Obs.] Shak.

LIKE'LI-NESS, n. [from likely.]

1. Probability.
2. The qualities that please. [See Likely.]

LIKE'LY, a. [that is, like-like.]

1. Probable; that may be rationally thought or believed to have taken place in time past, or to be true now or hereafter; such as is more reasonable than the contrary. A likely story, is one which evidence, or the circumstances of the case render probable, and therefore credible.
2. Such as may be liked; pleasing; as, a likely man or woman. [This use of likely is not obsolete, as Johnson affirms, nor is it vulgar. But the English and their descendants in America differ in the application. The English apply the word to external appearance, and with them, likely is equivalent to handsome, well-formed; as, a likely man, a likely horse. In America, the word is usually applied to the endowments of the mind, or to pleasing accomplishments. With us, a likely man, is a man of good character and talents, or of good dispositions or accomplishments, that render him pleasing or respectable.]

LIKE'LY, adv.

Probably. While man was innocent, he was likely ignorant of nothing important for him to know. Glanville.