cake

[ keyk ]
See synonyms for cake on Thesaurus.com
noun
  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.

  1. a shaped or molded mass of other food: a fish cake.

  2. a shaped or compressed mass: a cake of soap; a cake of ice.

  3. 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.

verb (used with object),caked, cak·ing.
  1. to form into a crust or compact mass.

verb (used without object),caked, cak·ing.
  1. to become formed into a crust or compact mass.

Idioms about cake

  1. a piece of cake, Informal. something easily done: She thought her first solo flight was a piece of cake.

  2. take the cake, Informal.

    • to surpass all others, especially in some undesirable quality; be extraordinary or unusual: His arrogance takes the cake.

    • to win first prize.

Origin of cake

1
1200–50; Middle English <Old Norse kaka; akin to Middle English kechel little cake, German Kuchen;see cookie

Other words for cake

Other words from cake

  • caky, cakey, adjective
  • non·cak·ing, adjective, noun
  • un·cake, verb (used with object), un·caked, un·cak·ing.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for cake

cake

/ (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

  1. a shaped mass of dough or other food of similar consistency: a fish cake

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

  3. have one's cake and eat it to enjoy both of two desirable but incompatible alternatives

  4. go like hot cakes or sell like hot cakes informal to be sold very quickly or in large quantities

  5. piece of cake informal something that is easily achieved or obtained

  6. take the cake informal to surpass all others, esp in stupidity, folly, etc

  7. 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

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

Origin of cake

1
C13: from Old Norse kaka; related to Danish kage, German Kuchen

Derived forms of cake

  • cakey or caky, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with cake

cake

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.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.