resemble - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English resemblen, from Anglo-Norman resembler, ressembler, from re- + sembler (“to seem”). By surface analysis, re- +‎ semble.

resemble (third-person singular simple present resembles, present participle resembling, simple past and past participle resembled)

  1. (transitive) To be like or similar to (something); to represent as similar.
    Synonyms: recall, favor
    The twins resemble each other.
  2. (transitive, now rare, archaic) To compare; to regard as similar, to liken.
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To counterfeit; to imitate.
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to imitate or be like; to make similar.
    • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vi:
      And ſince we all haue ſuckt one wholſome aire,
      And with the ſame proportion of Elements,
      Reſolue, I hope we are reſembled,
      Uowing our loues to equall death and life, […]
    • 1881, Horace Bushnell, Building Eras in Religion:
      they resemble themselves to the swans

to be like or similar to something else — see also look like

resemble

  1. inflection of resemblar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative