flakyadj.

1580 Sir P. Sidney tr. Psalmes David cxxxv. iii In flaky mists, the reaking vapors rise.

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III v. v. 39 Flakie darkenesse breakes within the east. View more context for this quotation

1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 110 A white coat, or flaky substance on the top, just like the outsides of such Shells.

1716 J. Gay Trivia ii. 34 She bids the Snow descend in flaky Sheets.

1802 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 8 435 A flakey sort of milk.

1812 G. Crabbe Tales x. 177 Snow-white bloom falls flaky from the thorn.

1832 A. E. Bray Let. in Descr. Part Devonshire (1836) I. xi. 209 A mass, flaky..white fog.

1839 F. Marryat Phantom Ship I. xi. 240 The sky was covered with flaky clouds.

1856 E. K. Kane Arctic Explor. I. xxi. 270 A snow, moist and flaky.

1776 W. Combe Diaboliad 7 With flaky flames the distant region glow'd.

1672 R. Boyle Ess. Origine & Virtues Gems 22 Diamonds themselves have a grain or a flaky Contexture, not unlike the fissility, as the schools call it, in wood.

1721 W. Gibson Farriers Dispensatory ii. iii. 93 The genuin true Salt is transparent and fleaky.

1748 tr. Vegetius Of Distempers Horses 107 Scissile or flaky Alum.

1758 R. Griffiths Descr. Thames 171 A flat, luscious and flaky Fish like the Salmon.

1784 J. Twamley Dairying Exemplified 98 It is warmth that..causes Cheese to cut Flakey.

1830 M. Donovan Domest. Econ. II. i. 5 The flesh [of the cod] when boiled becomes firm and flaky.

1841 T. R. Jones Gen. Outl. Animal Kingdom xxviii. 555 The flaky lateral muscles of the caudal region disappear.

1872 W. Black Strange Adventures Phaeton xii. 162 The flaky red surface of the old tower.

1879 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. Flaky-spar..the local name given to this spar is very likely due to the manner in which its beautiful rhomboidal prisms sever or flake.

1837 N. Hawthorne Twice-told Tales (1851) I. viii. 179 Pies, with such white and flaky paste.

1857 C. Dickens Little Dorrit ii. xxxiv. 619 A pie as far from flaky as the present.

1865 Harper's Mag. Apr. 610/1 Crisp ‘short~cakes’ or ‘flaky’ pie-crust.

1904 Daily Chron. 14 Sept. 8/4 A pie that has not made up its mind whether it is to be short or flaky is not worth eating.

1943 A. L. Simon Conc. Encycl. Gastron. IV. 92/1 Indian flaky pastry.

1969 Harper's Bazaar Oct. 12/2 Quails wrapped in ham and cooked in flaky pastry.

1964 N.Y. Times 26 Apr. v. 2/7 The term ‘flake’ needs explanation. It's an insider's word, used throughout baseball, usually as an adjective; someone is considered ‘flaky’. It does not mean anything so crude as ‘crazy’, but it's well beyond ‘screwball’ and far off to the side of ‘eccentric’.

1974 A. Lurie War between Tates vi. 128 ‘I figure I would have flipped out pretty soon.’ She makes the gesture of someone exhausted or insane, flipping a pancake, in demonstration. ‘I was really flaky.’

1976 M. Machlin Pipeline xl. 434 She'd become so flakey and so hostile to the world around her that Larry had found it hard to communicate with her.

1979 Sunday Sun (Brisbane) 1 July 49/2 What changed my mind was that Players is the first film to show tennis stars in a realistic way. Not as flaky guys or playboys.

1983 ‘J. le Carré’ Little Drummer Girl i. iv. 78 We hear she's currently allied with a very flakey anarchist guy, some kind of crazy.

1986 New Yorker 20 Jan. 19/2 People can choose their own words to describe Qaddafi's mental state—President Reagan called him ‘flaky’, and later denied that he considered Qaddafi mentally unbalanced.

1972 Newsweek 10 Jan. 25/1 ‘The majority of citizen-filed bills are pretty flaky,’ observes State Senate president Kevin Harrington.

1977 C. McFadden Serial (1978) xvi. 39/2 Angela and her flaky ‘extended family concept’.

1978 Consumer Reports Mar. 174/2 ‘We know the EPA numbers [on gas mileage] are flaky,’ says a Ford Motor Co. public-relations man.

1986 Guardian 16 Jan. 13/8 British Telecom's Multi-User dungeon adventure..is playable, but still too flakey for BT to charge people for playing it.