Full Idea
If objects belong to classes in virtue of resemblances they bear to one another, they resemble one another in virtue of their properties. Objects resemble in some way or respect, and you could think of these ways or respects as 'properties'.
Gist of Idea
Properties are the respects in which objects resemble, which places them in classes
Source
C.B. Martin (The Mind in Nature [2008], 04.6)
Book Reference
Martin,C.B.: 'The Mind in Nature' [OUP 2008], p.42
A Reaction
If you pare the universe down to one object with five distinct properties, they resemble nothing, and fail this definition. Resemblance seems like the epistemology, not the ontology.