1. To come away from a surface in small, thin pieces.
2. A small, thin piece, often separated from a layer or surface.
3. An unreliable person who forgets commitments, or someone considered unusually eccentric.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- paint flakes
- flaking plaster
- a surface begins to flake
On the page
Paint flaked from the nursery door whenever the wind moved it.
As he lifted the portrait, a little of the gilding flaked onto his sleeve.
A flake of plaster lay on the empty pillow.
She brushed white flakes from the cover before opening the diary.
He called her a flake because she had forgotten the interview again.
Word forms
- Base
- flake
- Past tense
- flaked
- Past participle
- flaked
- Present participle
- flaking
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- flake
- Present continuous
- am/is/are flaking
- Present perfect
- have/has flaked
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been flaking
- Past
- flaked
- Past continuous
- was/were flaking
- Past perfect
- had flaked
- Past perfect continuous
- had been flaking
- Future
- will flake
- Future continuous
- will be flaking
- Future perfect
- will have flaked
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been flaking
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Noun: a flake, plural flakes. Verb: flakes; flaked; flaked; flaking. Surface-loss use is normally intransitive. Personal senses are informal and mainly US; calling someone a flake can be insulting. Register: neutral. Commonness: common in descriptions of surfaces; informal personal senses are mainly American (dictionary-informed qualitative editorial estimate; not a measured frequency).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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