ery
meaning of this word to express such like_ness_. John looks _like_ his
brother. The looks, the countenance, or appearance of John, are
_likened_ to his brother's looks or appearance. "This machine is more
like the pattern than any I have seen." Here the adjective _like_ takes
the comparative degree, as it is called, to show a nearer resemblance
than has been before observed between the things compared. "He has a
statesman-_like_ appearance." I _like_ this apple, because it agrees
with my taste; it has qualities _like_ my notion of what is palateable."
In every situation the word is used to express likeness between two
things. It describes one thing by its likeness to another.

Many adjectives are formed from proper nouns by adding an apostrophe and
the letter _s_, except when the word ends in _s_, in which case the
final _s_ is usually omitted for the sake of euphony. This, however, was
not generally adopted by old writers. It is not observed in the earliest
translations of the Bible into the english language. It is now in common
practice. Thus, Montgomery's monument in front of St. Paul's church;
Washington's funeral; Shay's rebelion; England's bitterest foes;
Hamlet's father's ghost; Peter's wife's mother; Todd's, Walker's,
Johnson's dictionary; Winchell's Watts' hymns; Pond's Murray's grammar.
No body would suppose that the "relation of property or possession" was
expressed in these cases, as our grammar books tell us, but that the
terms employed are used to _define_ certain objects, about which we are
speaking. They possess the true character and use of adjectives, and as
such let them be regarded. It must be as false as frivolous to say that
Montgomery, who nobly fell at the siege of Quebec, _owns_ the monument
erected over his remains, which were conveyed to New-York many years
after his death; or that St. Paul _owns_ or _possesses_ the church
beneath which they were deposited; that Hamlet owned his father, and his
father his ghost; that Todd owns Walker, and Walker owns Johnson, and
Johnson his dictionary which may have had a hundred owners, and never
been the property of its author, but printed fifty years after his
death. These words, I repeat, are merely _definitive_ terms, and like
others serve to point out or specify particular objects which may thus
be better known.

Words, however, in common use form adjectives the same as other words;
as, Russia iron, China ships, India silks, Vermont cheese, Orange