Definition of "flake" in Anglais

noun

1. 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. A scale of a fish or similar animal

3. (archaeology) A prehistoric tool chipped out of stone.

4. (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. A carnation with only two colours in the flower, the petals having large stripes.

6. A flat turn or tier of rope.

7. (US, law enforcement, slang) A corrupt arrest, e.g. to extort money for release or merely to fulfil a quota.

8. A wire rack for drying fish.

verb

1. To break or chip off in a flake.

   • The paint flaked off after only a year.

2. (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.

3. (technical) To store an item such as rope or sail in layers

   • The line is flaked into the container for easy attachment and deployment.

4. (Ireland, slang) To hit (another person).

5. (US, law enforcement, slang) To plant evidence to facilitate a corrupt arrest.

6. To lay out on a flake for drying.

   • flake a fish

noun

1. (UK) Dogfish.

2. (Australia) The meat of the gummy shark.

noun

1. (UK, dialect) A paling; a hurdle.

2. A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish and other things.

3. (nautical) A small stage hung over a vessel's side, for workmen to stand on while calking, etc.

4. (nautical) Alternative form of fake (“turn or coil of cable or hawser”).