resemble meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

resemble

verb

CA, US, UK /ɹɪˈzɛmbəl/ · AU /ɹɪˈzembəl/

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

To be like or similar to (something); to represent as similar.

The twins resemble each other.
We will resemble you in that.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

2 more examples

He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
But what you've just described does resemble a person of that kind.2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 230b:

Archaic To compare; to regard as similar, to liken.

And th'other all yclad in garments light, / Discolour'd like to womanish disguise, / He did resemble to his Ladie bright [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Obsolete To counterfeit; to imitate.

They can so well resemble mans speech.1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:

Obsolete To cause to imitate or be like; to make similar.

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, […]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:
they resemble themselves to the swans1881, Horace Bushnell, Building Eras in Religion:

Synonyms: mirror, duplicate, look like, resemble, smack of
Antonyms: differ, assimilate, connaturalize, normalize, standardise
Derived terms: I resemble that remark, resemblance, resemblingly, unresemble