likening

Verb

liken (third-person singular simple present likens, present participle likening, simple past and past participle likened)

1. (transitive) Followed by to or (archaic) unto: to regard or state that (someone or something) is like another person or thing; to compare.
   • The physics teacher likened the effect of mass on space to an indentation in a sheet of rubber.

   Antonyms:

   contrast, unliken

2. (also, rare, reflexive, transitive) Chiefly followed by to: to make (oneself, someone, or something) resemble another person or thing.
   • Speech is reason's brother, and a kingly prerogative of man, / That likeneth him to his Maker, who spake, and it was done.1838, Martin Farquhar Tupper, “Of Speaking”, in Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated, London: Joseph Rickerby, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 133

   Antonyms:

   unliken

3. (rare, transitive) To represent or symbolize (something).
4. (intransitive, obsolete) Followed by to: to be like or resemble; also, to become like.