Not unlike

Broadly speaking, yes.
Do you have a specififc sentence in mind?

Yes.

"What he would see would be light rays which would have orbited the gravitational lens from left and right, not unlike a water stream flowing around an obstacle on the way, and would create not one (primary) image of the quasar, but two imaginary (secondary) ones separated by some distance." [From This Fascinating Astronomy by V. N. Komarov.]

Yes

Thank you, Clive, for your useful reply.

Not unlike also suggests that it is a rather unusual comparison.

Clive

AnonymousDoes not unlike = like ?

Yes and no. I think 'not unlike' is more like 'somewhat like'.

It's like saying X is not completely similar to Y, but then X is not completely dissimilar to Y either, so X is "not unlike" Y.

CJ

Thank you, CJ, for your useful reply.

I concur with CJ, not unlike means "is not completely dissimilar", or "is somewhat like."