What does "liking" mean?
Liking: 1. The state of being pleasing; a suiting. See On liking, below. [Obs. or Prov. End.]
Additional senses
- 2.The state of being pleased with, or attracted toward, some thing or person; hence, inclination; desire; pleasure; preference; -- often with for, formerly with to; as, it is an amusement I have no liking for. If the human intellect hath once taken a liking to any doctrine, . . . it draws everything else into harmony with that doctrine, and to its support. Bacon.
- 3.Appearance; look; figure; state of body as to health or condition. [Archaic] I shall think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking. Shak. Their young ones are in good liking. Job. xxxix.
- 4.On liking, on condition of being pleasing to or suiting; also, on condition of being pleased with; as, to hold a place of service on liking; to engage a servant on liking. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Would he be the degenerate scion of that royal line . . . to be a king on liking and on sufferance Hazlitt.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00