FLAKE

bit, chip, flake, fleck, scrap

(noun) a small fragment of something broken off from the whole; “a bit of rock caught him in the eye”

eccentric, eccentric person, flake, oddball, geek

(noun) a person with an unusual or odd personality

snowflake, flake

(noun) a crystal of snow

flake

(verb) cover with flakes or as if with flakes

flake

(verb) form into flakes; “The substances started to flake”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology 1

Noun

flake (plural flakes)

A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything

A scale of a fish or similar animal

(archaeology) A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone.

(informal) A person who is impractical, flighty, unreliable, or inconsistent; especially with maintaining a living.

A carnation with only two colours in the flower, the petals having large stripes.

A flat turn or tier of rope.

Verb

flake (third-person singular simple present flakes, present participle flaking, simple past and past participle flaked)

To break or chip off in a flake.

(colloquial) To prove unreliable or impractical; to abandon or desert, to fail to follow through.

(technical) To store an item such as rope or sail in layers

(Ireland, slang) To hit (another person).

Etymology 2

A name given to dogfish to improve its marketability as a food, perhaps from etymology 1.

Noun

flake (uncountable)

(UK) Dogfish.

(Australia) The meat of the gummy shark.

Etymology 3

Compare Icelandic flaki?, fleki?, Danish flage, Dutch vlaak.

Noun

flake (plural flakes)

(UK, dialect) A paling; a hurdle.

A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things.

• English Husbandman

(nautical) A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on while calking, etc.

(nautical) Alternative form of fake (“turn or coil of cable or hawser”)

• Frank T. Bullen, The Cruise of the Cachalot: The Story of a New Bedford Whaler

Anagrams

• fleak

Proper noun

Flake (plural Flakes)

A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Flake is the 7676^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 4326 individuals. Flake is most common among White (83.4%) and Black/African American (11.23%) individuals.

Anagrams

• fleak

Source: Wiktionary

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Flake, n. Etym: [Cf. Icel. flaki, fleki, Dan. flage, D. vlaak.]

1. A paling; a hurdle. [prov. Eng.]

2. A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things. You shall also, after they be ripe, neither suffer them to have straw nor fern under them, but lay them either upon some smooth table, boards, or flakes of wands, and they will last the longer. English Husbandman.

3. (Naut.)

Definition: A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on in calking, etc.

Flake, n. Etym: [Cf. Icel. flakna to flake off, split, flagna to flake off, Sw. flaga flaw, flake, flake plate, Dan. flage snowflake. Cf. Flag a flat stone.]

1. A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything; a film; flock; lamina; layer; scale; as, a flake of snow, tallow, or fish. "Lottle flakes of scurf." Addison. Great flakes of ice encompassing our boat. Evelyn.

2. A little particle of lighted or incandescent matter, darted from a fire; a flash. With flakes of ruddy fire. Somerville.

3. (Bot.)

Definition: A sort of carnation with only two colors in the flower, the petals having large stripes. Flake knife (Archæol.), a cutting instrument used by savage tribes, made of a flake or chip of hard stone. Tylor.

– Flake stand, the cooling tub or vessel of a still worm. Knight.

– Flake white. (Paint.) (a) The purest white lead, in the form of flakes or scales. (b) The trisnitrate of bismuth. Ure.

Flake, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flaked; p. pr. & vb. n. Flaking.]

Definition: To form into flakes. Pope.

Flake, v. i.

Definition: To separate in flakes; to peel or scale off.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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