flake
pronunciation
How to pronounce flake in British English:
UK [fleɪk]
How to pronounce flake in American English:
US [flek]
-
- Noun:
- a crystal of snow
- a person with an unusual or odd personality
- a small fragment of something broken off from the whole
-
- Verb:
- form into flakes
- cover with flakes or as if with flakes
- come off in flakes or thin small pieces
Word Origin
- flake
- flake: [14] Flake appears to go back to a prehistoric Germanic source which denoted the splitting of rocks into strata. This was *flak-, a variant of which produced English flaw [14] (which originally meant ‘flake’), the second syllable of whitlow [14] (which probably means etymologically ‘white fissure’), floe [19], and probably flag ‘stone slab’.=> flag, flaw, floe, whitlow
- flake (n.)
- "thin, flat piece of snow; a particle," early 14c., also flauke, flagge, which is of uncertain origin, possibly from Old English *flacca "flakes of snow," or from cognate Old Norse flak "loose or torn piece" (related to Old Norse fla "to skin;" see flay); or perhaps from Proto-Germanic *flago- (cognates: Middle Dutch vlac, Dutch vlak "flat, level," Middle High German vlach, German Flocke "flake"); from PIE *plak- (1) "to be flat" (see placenta). From late 14c. as "a speck, a spot."
- flake (v.)
- early 15c., flaken, (of snow) "to fall in flakes," from flake (n.). Transitive meaning "break or peel off in flakes" is from 1620s; intransitive sense of "to come off in flakes" is from 1759. . Related: Flaked; flaking.
Example
- 1. Then a large flake of silcrete almost 10 centimetres in diameter was found embedded in ash in an ancient fire pit .
- 2. As your skin continues to flake in this cold snap all you need is a cheap tub of moisturiser to make it glow again .
- 3. If fluxed parts are allowed to stand , the water in the flux will evaporate ; and dried flux is liable to flake off , exposing metal surfaces to oxidation .
- 4. Be sure to weight each flake .
- 5. Otherwise sericite flake star distribution .