What does the word "Like" mean ?

Indeed many youngsters in Britain and America use the word 'like' just as a filler (a meaningless word) or, as in "He was like don't do that" to mean "He said: 'Don't do that'". It's just an irritating habit of speech and has nothing to do with the 'normal' meaning of 'like'.

"Like" indeed means "in a similar way", "having a resemblance". As a verb it is a word of friendliness, not as strong as "love".

Like Mean

The particle "like" can be used non-traditionally in informal speech and slang as :

- A delayed filler : "He was so angry, like."

- A mild intensifier : "She was, like, sooooo happy."

- indicating approximation or uncertainty :

"There were, like, twenty of them."

"And then he, like, got all angry and left the room."

- When preceded by any form of the verb "to be", used to mean “to say” or “to think”; used to precede an approximate quotation or paraphrase : "I was like, “Why did you do that?” and he's like, “I don't know.”"

For details, see : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like#In_slang_and_col...