Word.ws English Dictionary

take a liking to

take a liking to verb: to develop a fondness for; to become infatuated with.

Verb

take a liking to (third-person singular simple present takes a liking to, present participle taking a liking to, simple past took a liking to, past participle taken a liking to)

  1. (idiomatic) To develop a fondness for; to become infatuated with.
    • He met casually with this Polly once in company, and taking a liking to her, makes it worth her while to keep entirely to him.1748, John Cleland, Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, page 33
    • I don't know whether it does you credit or the reverse that I should have taken a liking to you.1894, Justin McCarthy, Red diamonds, page 94
    Synonyms:
    take a shine to

Synonyms of take a liking to

Forms of take a liking to

third-person singular presenttakes a liking to
present participletaking a liking to
pasttook a liking to
past participletaken a liking to

Questions about take a liking to

What does take a liking to mean?
Take a liking to means to develop a fondness for; to become infatuated with.
What part of speech is take a liking to?
Take a liking to is a verb.
What is the past tense of take a liking to?
The past tense of take a liking to is took a liking to.

Words near take a liking to in the dictionary

  1. take a knife to a gunfight
  2. take a leaf out of someone's book
  3. take a leak
  4. take a licking
  5. take a licking and keep on ticking
  6. take a liking to
  7. take a listen
  8. take a load off
  9. take a long walk off a short pier
  10. take a long walk on a short pier
  11. take a look

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take a liking to (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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