feel like

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

feel like (third-person singular simple present feels like, present participle feeling like, simple past and past participle felt like)

1. To have a desire for something, or to do something.

   I didn't feel like working yesterday, so I called in sick.

2. To perceive oneself to resemble (something); to have the sense of being (something).
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     “Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.

3. To feel that something is likely to happen; to predict.

   I feel like it will rain all week.

   She felt like the dog could start biting at any moment.

4. To feel as though.
   • 1987, Charles Hammer, chapter 3, in Wrong-Way Ragsdale, New York, N.Y.: Farrar / Straus / Giroux, →LCCN, page 17:

     Those guinea feathers blew out in the sun ahead of us and lighted up, then got sucked back into the shade. That old wreck wasn’t going to fly, it wasn’t even going to roll on those flat tires. But I felt like I was flying through a cloud of guinea feathers.

   • 1992, Peter Levine, “The Body as Healer: A Revisioning of Trauma and Anxiety”, in Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, editor, Giving the Body Its Due (The Body in Culture, History, and Religion), Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 91:

     I’m real scared . . . stiff all over . . . I feel like I am dying . . . I can’t move . . . I don’t want to die . . . help me.

   • 2006, Don Otey, chapter 56, in Terror’s Mask, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 242:

     Kenny is beginning to feel dizzy and sags. She jams a hand under his arm to prop him up. He feels like he’s about to pass out.

5. (impersonal) To give a perception of something; to appear or to seem.

   It felt like rain, but it barely drizzled.

   It feels like Gerald is the likely suspect.

6. (meteorology, impersonal) Denotes the apparent temperature.

Usage notes

• feel like can be followed by either a noun or by a gerund e.g. After a long day chopping wood, I felt like (taking) a bath.

Derived terms

• feel like death
• feel like oneself

Related terms

• would like

Translations

have a desire for something, or to do something

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: ইচ্ছা হওয়া (bn) (iccha hōẇa)
• Catalan: venir de gust (ca), abellir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 想要 (zh) (xiǎngyào), 想 (zh) (xiǎng), 有興趣／有兴趣 (zh) (yǒuxìngqù)

• Danish: have lyst til
• Dutch: zin hebben
• Esperanto: emi (eo)
• Estonian: viitsima
• Finnish: tehdä mieli, huvittaa (fi), viitsiä (fi)
• French: avoir envie (fr) de
• German: Lust haben auf
• Hebrew: בא (he) (ba) (+ the subject in dative case + a verb in nonfinite form or a noun)
• Hungarian: van kedve (hu)
• Icelandic: langa í, nenna
• Ingrian: kehata
• Irish: fonn a bheith ort chun
• Italian: avere voglia di
• Japanese: ほしい hoshii
• Ladin: avëi ueia de
• Portuguese: ter vontade de, querer (pt), estar a fim de
• Russian: (the person wanting in dative +) хоте́ться (ru) impf (xotétʹsja), (the person wanting in dative +) хоте́лось бы (xotélosʹ by), хоте́ть (ru) impf (xotétʹ) (politeness is expressed by adding бы (by) to the past tense forms, e.g. "я хоте́л(а) бы" - "I'd like" (m/f)), жела́ть (ru) impf (želátʹ)
• Spanish: tener ganas de, apetecer (es), estar por la labor, antojarse (es), provocar (es), tincar (es) (Chile)
• Swedish: känna för

perceive oneself to resemble

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 感覺自己像／感觉自己像 (gǎnjué zìjǐ xiàng)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: tuntua kuin
• French: se sentir comme
• German: so scheinen als ob, sich so anfühlen als ob
• Hungarian: (úgy) érzi magát (, mint/mintha...)
• Portuguese: sentir-se como
• Spanish: sentirse como