flake
part of speech
noun (a flake, flakes); verb (flake, flakes, flaked, flaking); verb (flake out — informal)
meaning for a pupil
1) A small, thin, flat piece of something, like a snowflake or a flake of paint. tree →
2) (verb) To come off in small thin pieces: «The paint is flaking». tree →
3) (verb) To break cooked fish or food into small pieces. tree →
4) (informal noun) A person who often forgets or breaks plans. tree →
5) (informal verb, flake out / flake on) To not do what you promised, or to fall asleep from tiredness. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science: snowflakes are ice crystals, and every one is a six-sided shape. In everyday life: cornflakes, chocolate flakes, flakes of dry skin, peeling paint. Informal: «Don't flake on me!» means «Don't let me down». Phrases: «snowflake», «cornflakes», «paint flakes off», «flake out».
examples
- A snowflake landed on my glove. tree →
- The old paint on the fence is flaking off. tree →
- I had a bowl of cornflakes for breakfast. tree →
- Flake the cooked fish with a fork. tree →
- Dry skin can come off in tiny flakes. tree →
- He said he would come but he flaked at the last minute. tree →
- After the long hike, I flaked out on the sofa. tree →
- We put a chocolate flake in the ice cream. tree →
- The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just like great white fowls. tree →
note
Verb: flake, flaked, flaking (drop e). Calling a person «a flake» is informal and a bit rude. Myth: «no two snowflakes are alike» is very likely true for big ones, but nobody can check every flake.
In the corpora
- Many people are allergic to proteins in pet skin flakes and saliva, which cause sneezing and itchy eyes.
- Skin under a cast itches because it is sweaty and dead skin cells cannot flake off.
- The flakes of his flesh are joined together; they are firm upon him; they cannot be moved.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «flake» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.