| 词组 | likes of |
| 释义 | likes of The phrase the likes of has been variously criticized in recent decades. Evans 1957 calls it "not literary English"; Bernstein 1965 dismisses it as "a casual-ism that has no place in serious writing"; and Shaw 1975 describes it as "nonstandard." We find little support for these assessments in our files, and certainly none for the last. The likes of is a common phrase, first recorded more than 200 years ago, which in current speech and writing has two principal uses, both of which are standard. In one of its uses, it has a single object, often a pronoun, and it typically carries overtones of disparagement: • "Why should the likes of you come here?" she demanded —Fulton Oursler, Reader's Digest, October 1946 • ... who castigates his favorite grandson for ... marrying the likes of Anna —Julian Moynahan, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 24 June 1979 • Don't want to be connected with the likes of him — A. G. Mojtabai, Autumn, 1982 In its other common use, the likes of has a multiple object in the form of a list of names, and its meaning is "such people as" or "such things as." It often implies that the list which follows is regarded as being in some way impressive or surprising. Disparaging connotations are rare: • ... it's too bad that the likes of Paul Douglas, Ginger Rogers, and William Holden got caught up in it — John McCarten, New Yorker, 23 Jan. 1954 • Turning their backs on the likes of (get this) John Cheever, Philip Roth, Joan Didion, ... and John McPhee —Richard Locke, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 23 Apr. 1978 • ... goblets and bowls coveted by the likes of The Smithsonian and The Metropolitan Museum of Art —advt., N.Y. Times, 9 Apr. 1980 • ... is now joined by the likes of Mr. Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth and ... John le Carré —Wilfrid Sheed, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 6 July 1980 The likes of is appropriate and inoffensive in such contexts. The variant phrase the like of can also be used in some cases, and it is probably a better choice when the reference is to a single object and no disparagement is intended: • ... colored by issues the like of which no political culture has yet encountered —Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture, 1969 |
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