flake1
/fleɪk
/noun
1A small, flat, very thin piece of something, typically one which has broken away or been peeled off from a larger piece: he licked the flakes of croissant off his finger...
- She was tearing fragments off and placing them in her mouth, dusty and moist, her fingers covered in oil from the almond paste, sugar and flakes of croissant pastry.
- In this method, clear sticky tape was pressed firmly into sample areas and rapidly pulled away, removing thin flakes of biotite with the tapes.
- There were also large flakes of paint peeling off of the buildings, though it was hard to tell when there was no color to the whole place.
Synonyms
sliver, wafer, shaving, paring, peeling;
chip, shard, scale, crumb, grain, speck, spillikin;
fragment, scrap, shred, bit, particle;
Scottish skelf
technical spall, lamina
1.1A snowflake: the snow was coming down in thick flakes...
- Outside, snow fell: fat flakes adhering to the windows and frosting the glass in translucent white.
- And the snow flurries quickly became a constant storm of thick flakes that started to settle deeply on the ground.
- A soft haze of thick flakes, sluicing through the streetlights, settling on gutters, bicycles and pedestrians.
1.2 Archaeology A piece of hard stone chipped off for use as a tool by prehistoric humans: [as modifier]: flake tools...
- Living on the Isle of Wight with a life-long interest in prehistory I have spent many hours field-walking and have a substantial collection of flint tools and flakes.
- The flake tools have possible polishing and edge-wear damage evident along one lateral margin.
- The artifacts include hundreds of stone tools and flakes, as well as spear foreshafts made of rhinoceros horn and mammoth tusk.
1.3 [mass noun] Thin pieces of crushed, dried food or bait for fish.I decided to use a nice piece of bread flake as hook bait....
- When trotting with a pin in fast water, I often use bread flake as my hook bait.
- The water certainly was not very deep so I decided to use a small self cocking float with 6 lb line and a piece of bread flake as bait.
2North American informal A crazy or eccentric person.So, do you now blame your loss on these crazies and flakes?
verb
1 [no object] Come or fall away from a surface in flakes: the paint had been flaking off for years...
- The rusty pink nail polish that I had put on two months ago was flaking off and falling silently on the ground.
- The surface of the tree was flaking off in great sheets of bark, showering the two with dust made of both dead tree and stone.
- Today, at 108,000 kilometres, there's paint flaking off the leading edge of the hood, the brakes need work and the dashboard makes a buzzing noise at highway speeds when it's cold.
1.1Lose small fragments from the surface: my nails have started to flake at the ends
2 [with object] Separate (food) into flakes or thin pieces: (as adjective flaked) flaked almonds...
- Beware of foods such as hash browns, home fries, jam, molasses, soup mixes, canned vegetables, wine and flaked coconut.
- I've switched to flaked coconut and it works just as well.
- Dissolve 6 tablespoons flaked pickling salt in 1 gallon of lukewarm water.
2.1 [no object] (Of food) come apart in flakes or thin pieces: cook until the fish flakes easily...
- Place on greased baking sheet and bake at 450F turning once for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden and fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
- The kind where the crust flakes off in sharp little pieces that stick to the roof of our mouth.
- Add salmon, skinside down, and cook, covered, 10-12 minutes or until fish flakes easily.
Origin
Middle English: the immediate source is unknown, the senses perhaps deriving from different words; probably of Germanic origin and related to flag2 and flaw1.
Rhymes
flake2
/fleɪk/noun
A rack or shelf for storing or drying food such as fish.
Origin
Middle English (denoting a wicker hurdle): perhaps of Scandinavian origin and related to Old Norse flaki, fleki 'wicker shield' and Danish flage 'hurdle'.
flake3
/fleɪk/verb [no object] (flake out) informal
Fall asleep; drop from exhaustion: he got back in time to flake out until morning...
- But now I have one babe asleep in my arms and the other babe is flaked out on the sofa.
- We were totally going for it and I didn't notice that the rest of the band were flaking out.
- Usually at 9pm I'm flaking out in front of the tv.
Synonyms
fall asleep, go to sleep, drop off;
collapse, drop, keel over;
faint, pass out, lose consciousness, black out
informal conk out, go out, go out like a light, nod off
North American informal sack out, zone out
literary swoon
Origin
Late 15th century (in the senses 'become languid' and (of a garment) 'fall in folds'): variant of obsolete flack and the verb flag4. The current sense dates from the 1940s.
flake4
/fleɪk/(also fake /feɪk/) Nautical
noun
A single turn of a coiled rope or hawser.
verb [with object]
1Lay (a rope) in loose coils in order to prevent it tangling: a cable had to be flaked out
1.1Lay (a sail) down in folds either side of the boom.Going to the mizzen boom he undid the badly fastened ties, raised the sail and lowered it, flaking it neatly as it came down.
Origin
Early 17th century (as a noun): of unknown origin; compare with German Flechte in the same sense.