LIKEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does liken mean? 

• LIKEN (verb)
  The verb LIKEN has 1 sense:

1. consider or describe as similar, equal, or analogous

  Familiarity information: LIKEN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIKEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they liken    ... he / she / it likens   
Past simple: likened   
Past participle: likened   
-ing form: likening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Consider or describe as similar, equal, or analogous

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

compare; equate; liken

Context example:

You cannot equate success in financial matters with greed

Hypernyms (to "liken" is one way to...):

consider; study (give careful consideration to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

 Context examples 

Indeed, some people have already likened the shape to a duck, with a distinct body and head.

(Rosetta Comet May Be a Contact Binary, NASA)

Its apex might be likened to a point.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I likened him to some great tiger, a beast of prowess and prey.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Researchers liken the charge to the static electricity generated when you rub a balloon on your hair.

('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)

Klee likened this to how different versions of genes in humans influence traits such as height, weight and hair color.

(Scientists develop genetic path to tastier tomatoes, NSF)

This series of events can be likened to the meteor blast that shattered windows in Chelyabinsk, Russia, last year.

(NASA Mars weathercam helps find big new crater, NASA)

They likened TOP2-DPCs to ticking time bombs for cells.

(DNA damage caused by cancer treatment reversed by ZATT protein, National Institutes of Health)

He likened her to a pale gold flower upon a slender stem.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The Sun has long been known to go through eleven-year cycles of high and low activity, including sunspots, which Strugarek likened to solar volcanoes.

(Sun's mood swings not so strange after all, Wikinews)

The proposal was a very pleasant one to William himself, who enjoyed the idea of travelling post with four horses, and such a good-humoured, agreeable friend; and, in likening it to going up with despatches, was saying at once everything in favour of its happiness and dignity which his imagination could suggest; and Fanny, from a different motive, was exceedingly pleased; for the original plan was that William should go up by the mail from Northampton the following night, which would not have allowed him an hour's rest before he must have got into a Portsmouth coach; and though this offer of Mr. Crawford's would rob her of many hours of his company, she was too happy in having William spared from the fatigue of such a journey, to think of anything else.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)