| flake |  ©
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| 1. n. A loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything | |
| There were a few flakes of paint on the floor from when we were painting the walls. | |
| flakes of dandruff | |
| 2. n. A scale of a fish or similar animal | |
| 3. n. (archaeology) A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone. | |
| 4. n. (informal) A person who is impractical, flighty, unreliable, or inconsistent; especially with maintaining a living. | |
| She makes pleasant conversation, but she's kind of a flake when it comes time for action. | |
| 5. n. A carnation with only two colours in the flower, the petals having large stripes. | |
| 6. v. To break or chip off in a flake. | |
| The paint flaked off after only a year. | |
| 7. v. (colloquial) To prove unreliable or impractical; to abandon or desert, to fail to follow through. | |
| He said he'd come and help, but he flaked. | |
| 8. v. (technical) To store an item such as rope in layers | |
| The line is flaked into the container for easy attachment and deployment. | |
| 9. v. (Ireland, slang) To hit (another person). | |
| 10. n. (UK) Dogfish. | |
| 11. n. (Australia) The meat of the gummy shark. | |
| 12. n. (dialect) A paling; a hurdle. | |
| 13. n. A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things. | |
| 14. n. (nautical) A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on while calking, etc. | |
| 15. n. (nautical) (alt form, fake, (turn or coil of cable or hawser)) | |
