had like

English

Verb

had like

1. (archaic) Had nearly; (did) not quite (followed by the infinitive).
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     Wee had likt to haue had our two noses snapt
     off with two old men without teeth.

   • c. 1603, Walter Raleigh, Apology for the Voyage to Guiana:

     [the] report […] had like to have been my utter overthrow

   • 1884, Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona:

     Ramona had like to have said the literal truth, […] but recollected herself in time.

References

• “like”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.