Pronunciations
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/fleɪk/
Pronunciation notes
- UK
Noun
A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything
- Synonyms
- Examples
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There were a few flakes of paint on the floor from when we were painting the walls.
flakes of dandruff
More examples (2)
A light flutter of snow fell , and I glanced into the silvery sky, letting the flakes fall on my face.
And you treated my woman to a flake of your life. And when she came back she was nobody's wife.
A scale of a fish or similar animal
A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone.
A person who is impractical, flighty, unreliable, or inconsistent; especially with maintaining a living.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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She makes pleasant conversation, but she's kind of a flake when it comes time for action.
More examples (1)
The center encouraged its devotees to wear lucky red strings around one wrist, which Neumann did for quite a while, until a more sober-minded business person warned him to lose the item or risk confirming his burgeoning reputation as a flake.
A carnation with only two colours in the flower, the petals having large stripes.
A flat turn or tier of rope.
- Examples
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Admiral: What mean you by flakes? Captain: They are only those several circles or rounds of the roapes or cables, that are quoiled up round.
More examples (1)
A flake is the sailor's term for a turn in an ordinary coil, or for a complete tier in a flat coil, as a French or Flemish flake. The current dictionary form of the word is fake, a word that I have never heard used with this meaning. A Flemish flake is a spiral coil of one layer only.
A corrupt arrest, e.g. to extort money for release or merely to fulfil a quota.
Usage- US usage
- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (1)
When police decided to score gamblers, they would most often flake people with gambling slips, then demand $25 or $50 for not arresting them. Other times, they would simply threaten a flake and demand money.
A wire rack for drying fish.
Verb
To break or chip off in a flake.
- Examples
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The paint flaked off after only a year.
To prove unreliable or impractical; to abandon or desert, to fail to follow through.
Usage- Colloquial
- Examples
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He said he'd come and help, but he flaked.
To store an item such as rope or sail in layers
- Examples
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The line is flaked into the container for easy attachment and deployment.
To hit (another person).
Usage- Ireland
- Slang
To plant evidence to facilitate a corrupt arrest.
Usage- US usage
- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (1)
When police decided to score gamblers, they would most often flake people with gambling slips, then demand $25 or $50 for not arresting them. Other times, they would simply threaten a flake and demand money.
To lay out on a flake for drying.
- Examples
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flake a fish
Noun
Dogfish.
Usage- UK usage
- Uncountable
The meat of the gummy shark.
Usage- Australia
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Larger shark received about 10%/kg less than those in the 4-6 kg range. Most of the Victorian landed product is wholesaled as carcasses on the Melbourne Fish Market where it is sold to fish and chip shops, the retail sector and through restaurants as ‘flake’.
Susan said, ‘Get me a piece of flake and a serve of chips.’
More examples (1)
The local fish shop sold a bit of flake (shark) but most people were too spoiled to eat shark. The main item on the Kiwi table was still snapper, and there was plenty of them, caught by the Kiwis themselves, so no shortage whatsoever.
Noun
A paling; a hurdle.
Usage- UK usage
- dialectal
A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on while calking, etc.
Noun
a crystal of snow
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a person with an unusual or odd personality
a small fragment of something broken off from the whole
- Broader terms
- Examples
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a bit of rock caught him in the eye
Verb
form into flakes
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The substances started to flake
cover with flakes or as if with flakes
- Broader terms
come off in flakes or thin small pieces
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The paint in my house is peeling off