resemble definition

English resemble definition

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman, Old French resembler, from re- + sembler (“to seem”), synchronically analyzable as re- +‎ semble.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈzɛmb(ə)l/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: re‧sem‧ble

Verb

resemble (third-person singular simple present resembles, present participle resembling, simple past and past participle resembled)

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

   The twins resemble each other.

   • 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]:

     We will resemble you in that.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 230b:

     But what you've just described does resemble a person of that kind.

2. (transitive, now rare, archaic) To compare; to regard as similar, to liken.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     And th'other all yclad in garments light, / Discolour'd like to womanish disguise, / He did resemble to his Ladie bright [...].

3. (obsolete, transitive) To counterfeit; to imitate.
   • 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, published 1635, →OCLC:

     They can so well resemble mans speech.

4. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to imitate or be like; to make similar.
   • c. 1587–1588, [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:

     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, […]

   • 1881, Horace Bushnell, Building Eras in Religion:

     they resemble themselves to the swans

Synonyms

• mirror
• duplicate
• look like

Related terms

• I resemble that remark

Translations

Spanish resemble definition

Verb

resemble

1. inflection of resemblar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative