Word.ws English Dictionary

make like

make like verb: to behave as though.

Verb

make like (third-person singular simple present makes like, present participle making like, simple past and past participle made like)

  1. (US, colloquial) To behave as though.
    • Make like we're getting married and repeat after me, "2004 is the year I will moisturise daily".2004 January 3, Hannah Pool, “The new black”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    feint
  2. (US, colloquial) To behave in the manner of.
    • In his office is an eight-foot bull whip; Ed likes to snap it around and make like a slave-driver.1947 February 10, “The Great Salesman”, in Time

Synonyms of make like

Forms of make like

third-person singular presentmakes like
present participlemaking like
past participlemade like
pastmade like
alternative formmake as if

Origin of make like

Originally a US regionalism; compare earlier make as if.

Words formed from make like

Questions about make like

What does make like mean?
Make like means to behave as though.
What part of speech is make like?
Make like is a verb.
What is the past tense of make like?
The past tense of make like is made like.

Words near make like in the dictionary

  1. make land
  2. make landfall
  3. make lemonade
  4. make light of
  5. make light work of
  6. make like
  7. make like a baby and head out
  8. make like a banana and split
  9. make like a tree
  10. make like a tree and leave
  11. make little of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make like (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “make like.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_like. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.