cake

American  

[keyk] / keɪk /

noun

• cakes
  plural

1. a sweet, baked, breadlike food, made with or without shortening, and usually containing flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, eggs, and liquid flavoring.

2. a flat, thin mass of bread, especially unleavened bread.

3. pancake; griddlecake.

4. a shaped or molded mass of other food.

   a fish cake.

5. a shaped or compressed mass.

   a cake of soap; a cake of ice.

6. Animal Husbandry. a compacted block of soybeans, cottonseeds, or linseeds from which the oil has been pressed, usually used as a feed or feed supplement for cattle.

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verb (used with object)

• cakes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• caked,
  past participle,  past
• caking
  present participle

1. to form into a crust or compact mass.

verb (used without object)

• cakes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• caked,
  past participle,  past
• caking
  present participle

1. to become formed into a crust or compact mass.

   Synonyms:

   congeal, dry, solidify, harden

idioms

1. take the cake,

   1. to surpass all others, especially in some undesirable quality; be extraordinary or unusual.

      His arrogance takes the cake.

   2. to win first prize.

2. a piece of cake, something easily done.

   She thought her first solo flight was a piece of cake.

cake British  

/ keɪk /

noun

1. a baked food, usually in loaf or layer form, typically made from a mixture of flour, sugar, and eggs

2. a flat thin mass of bread, esp unleavened bread

3. a shaped mass of dough or other food of similar consistency

   a fish cake

4. a mass, slab, or crust of a solidified or compressed substance, as of soap or ice

5. to enjoy both of two desirable but incompatible alternatives

6. informal to be sold very quickly or in large quantities

7. informal something that is easily achieved or obtained

8. informal to surpass all others, esp in stupidity, folly, etc

9. informal the whole or total of something that is to be shared or divided

   the miners are demanding a larger slice of the cake

   that is a fair method of sharing the cake

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verb

1. (tr) to cover with a hard layer; encrust

   the hull was caked with salt

2. to form or be formed into a hardened mass

cake More Idioms  

1. see eat one's cake and have it, too; flat as a pancake; icing on the cake; nutty as a fruitcake; piece of cake; sell like hot cakes; slice of the pie (cake); take the cake.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• uncake
  verb (used with object)
• cakey
  adjective
• caky
  adjective
• noncaking
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cakes
  plural

Participles

• caking
  present
• caked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cake
  simple
• cakes
  simple
• have caked
  perfect
• has caked
  perfect
• am caking
  progressive
• are caking
  progressive
• is caking
  progressive
• have been caking
  perfect progressive
• has been caking
  perfect progressive

Past

• caked
  simple
• had caked
  perfect
• was caking
  progressive
• were caking
  progressive
• had been caking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cake
  simple
• will have caked
  perfect
• will be caking
  progressive
• will have been caking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of cake

1200–50; Middle English < Old Norse kaka; akin to Middle English kechel little cake, German Kuchen; see cookie

Explanation

A cake is a baked dessert that's often topped with frosting or decorations. For many people, it's not a proper birthday without a birthday cake. Most cakes are made with flour, fat, a sweetener, and something to make the cake rise — like eggs or baking powder. You might prefer denser, richer cheesecakes or tiny, delicate cupcakes, or even a savory version made of potatoes and vegetables. If someone says, "Well, that takes the cake," they're expressing their surprise at something, and if you say, "That exam was a piece of cake," it as easy as eating a piece of cake.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cake cakes caked caking

These ran the gamut: She starred in movies and invested in property and wrote children’s books, sold cake mix and jeans and doggy toys.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

But then Gov. Gavin Newsom, while nobody was watching, gave a swift kick to the cake.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

The courses begin with three savory bites before transitioning into full-fledged desserts, including a deconstructed version of her signature multilayered mousse cake, with flavors of brown rice and pecan praline.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Here, they get cooked with butter, brown sugar, orange zest and salt until glossy and jammy, then folded into a simple sour cream cake scented generously with cardamom.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

Wishing she could share his confidence, Renn knelt and fumbled in her pack for a salmon cake to give to Wolf.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

With funnel cakes in the shape of her beloved butterfly and fashion exhibits with eye-popping heels and wigs, Dolly Parton’s theme park has history, entertainment, reverence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

The ingredients are accessible, the substitutions sensible, the salmon cakes plausible weeknight fare.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026

Besides water, much needed for the hours spent sweating in the swelter, his firetruck is chock-a-chocolate block with gifts of cakes, fruit compotes and other kind offerings.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

An independent bakery owner has said it was a "kick in the teeth" to be asked by The Voice UK to provide the ITV show's guests and judges with free cakes.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

We are served cheese and eggs and bread and sweet cakes, made with walnuts and honey.

From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar

A brief exam revealed the eagle was quite underweight and weak, and her feet were caked with mud.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

A frame outside the auditorium door displays five photos of the Mayer’s dilapidated conditions in the ’90s, with the theater caked in rust and mold, a shell of the version I’m standing in now.

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2025

When discovered by a police officer with a metal detector on a cold November morning last year, the iPad was found caked in mud having been underwater for more than five years.

From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2025

A fisherman dived down in the water and brought up a clump of vegetation caked in dark slime.

From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2025

Their hands and faces were streaked and filthy, their hair was soaked and caked with mud.

From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda

The rain and fish goo caking my shoes has already begun to harden.

From National Geographic ● Jul. 17, 2023

The rain had stopped on Sunday and rescue teams and local volunteers were trying to pump out buildings and sweep away mud caking the streets before it could set hard under the sun.

From Reuters ● May 21, 2023

It’s figurative, embedded in the characters and the storyline, but also literal, with dirt and rot caking everything.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2023

A man named Gajendra Singh Quiriyal — the village’s grand pradhan, or leader — fell to the ground and convulsed on the fire’s edge, caking himself with ashes and embers.

From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2023

I feel jagged streaks of mud caking onto my face.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

Related Words

• loaf