Etymology From Middle English beliken (“to simulate, feign”), equivalent to be- + like.
1
To make like; simulate.
2
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.2000, Helen May Dennis, Ezra Pound and poetic influence:
It seems, you lov'd not her, to leave her token: / She's dead, belike.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
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.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 1, member 2, subsection iii:
4 more examples
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.1781, Horace Walpole, The Mysterious Mother, Act 1 Scene 2:
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."1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 558”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC:
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."1904, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “To Hilaire Belloc”, in The Napoleon of Notting Hill, London; New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, →OCLC, book I, page 7:
Some night-bird, belike, or a sea-gull squalling below the headland.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 39:
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. …"1903, The story of King Arthur and his knights