belike

verb

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

   “The most beautiful passages of Arnaut are in the canzo beginning: Sweet cries and cracks and lays and chants inflected By auzels who, in their Latin belikes.”

3. (impersonal)To be pleasing to; please.

   “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. …"”

4. (transitive)To like; be pleased with.

noun

1. An object of affection or liking.

   “She will always be one of my belikes.”

adv

1. (Northern-England, archaic, dialectal, especially, not-comparable)Likely, probably, perhaps, haply.

   “It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token: / She's dead, belike.”

   “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.”

   “Good fellow, who inhabits here? I do. Belike this castle is not thine. Belike so//But be it whose it may, this is no haunt//For revellers and gallants—pass your way.”

   “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."”

   “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."”