FLAKE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does flake mean? 

• FLAKE (noun)
  The noun FLAKE has 3 senses:

1. a crystal of snow

2. a person with an unusual or odd personality

3. a small fragment of something broken off from the whole

  Familiarity information: FLAKE used as a noun is uncommon.

• FLAKE (verb)
  The verb FLAKE has 3 senses:

1. form into flakes

2. cover with flakes or as if with flakes

3. come off in flakes or thin small pieces

  Familiarity information: FLAKE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FLAKE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A crystal of snow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

flake; snowflake

Hypernyms ("flake" is a kind of...):

crystal (a solid formed by the solidification of a chemical and having a highly regular atomic structure)

Meronyms (substance of "flake"):

H2O; water (binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent)

Holonyms ("flake" is a part of...):

snow; snowfall (precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals)

Holonyms ("flake" is a substance of...):

snow (a layer of snowflakes (white crystals of frozen water) covering the ground)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person with an unusual or odd personality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

eccentric; eccentric person; flake; geek; oddball

Hypernyms ("flake" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flake"):

crackpot; crank; fruitcake; nut; nut case; screwball (a whimsically eccentric person)

nutter; wacko; whacko (a person who is regarded as eccentric or mad)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A small fragment of something broken off from the whole

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

bit; chip; flake; fleck; scrap

Context example:

a bit of rock caught him in the eye

Hypernyms ("flake" is a kind of...):

fragment (a piece broken off or cut off of something else)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "flake"):

matchwood (fragments of wood)

exfoliation; scale; scurf (a thin flake of dead epidermis shed from the surface of the skin)

scurf ((botany) a covering that resembles scales or bran that covers some plant parts)

sliver; splinter (a small thin sharp bit or wood or glass or metal)

Derivation:

flake (come off in flakes or thin small pieces)

flakey; flaky (made of or resembling flakes)

• FLAKE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they flake    ... he / she / it flakes   
Past simple: flaked   
Past participle: flaked   
-ing form: flaking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Form into flakes

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The substances started to flake

Hypernyms (to "flake" is one way to...):

form (assume a form or shape)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cover with flakes or as if with flakes

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "flake" is one way to...):

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Come off in flakes or thin small pieces

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

flake; flake off; peel; peel off

Context example:

The paint in my house is peeling off

Hypernyms (to "flake" is one way to...):

break away; break off; chip; chip off; come off (break off (a piece from a whole))

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

flake (a small fragment of something broken off from the whole)

 Context examples 

Hubble astronomers suggest that powerful winds carry the titanium oxide gas around to the colder nighttime side, where it condenses into crystalline flakes, forms clouds, and precipitates as snow.

(Hubble Observes Exoplanet that Snows Sunscreen, NASA)

Common problem with the hair and scalp include hair loss, infections, and flaking.

(Hair Problems, NIH)

Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was strange to see the snow falling in such heavy flakes close to us, and beyond, the sun shining more and more brightly as it sank down towards the far mountain tops.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was wet snow, half rain, and the flakes were large and soggy.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

It was a heavy, settled fall, I recollect, in great flakes; and it lay thick.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They discovered that covering the flakes with a nanolayered coating of titanium disulfide (TiS2)—a material that does not Peierls distort—would stabilize the VS2 flakes and improve their performance within the battery.

(Creating Better Lithium-Ion Batteries Made Possible with New Discovery, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The team then incorporated graphene oxide (GO) flakes into the bacterial nanocellulose while it was growing, essentially trapping GO in the membrane to make it stable and durable.

(Novel Technology Uses Bacteria for Cleaning Water, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow were falling around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off sat working at her window.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was a very grey day; a most opaque sky, "onding on snaw," canopied all; thence flakes felt it intervals, which settled on the hard path and on the hoary lea without melting.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)