flaky
Americanadjective
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of or like flakes.
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lying or cleaving off in flakes or layers.
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Slang. eccentric; wacky; dizzy.
a flaky math professor.
adjective
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like or made of flakes
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tending to peel off or break easily into flakes
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Also: flakey. slang eccentric; crazy
Other Word Forms
- flakily adverb
- flakiness noun
- nonflakily adverb
- nonflakilyness noun
- nonflaky adjective
- unflaky adjective
Etymology
Origin of flaky
First recorded in 1570–80; 1965–70 flaky for def. 3; flake 1 + -y 1; sense of flaky def. 3 probably flake 4 + -y 1, though influenced by flake 1
Explanation
If you are flaky, you are off-beat and you probably don’t function in society quite like everyone else. If you say you’ll come to a party and then forget to show up, you are flaky. People are flaky (also spelled flakey) if they are wacky and unconventional, but to say someone is flaky is not really a compliment. If you want to buffer the blow of calling your friend an odd-ball, don’t say she’s flaky — say she’s eccentric. Pie crusts, snow, certain rocks, and dandruff can also be flaky, which means that they come apart in layered bits. Flakiness is a good thing for pie crusts, but not for your scalp.
Vocabulary lists containing flaky
Long Way Down
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Voilà: Croissant Lingo
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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The fine salt integrates; the flaky salt disrupts.
From Salon • Mar. 5, 2026
Dinner at Kabawa in New York’s East Village begins with “buss-up shut,” a flaky Trinidadian flatbread derived from Indian paratha roti.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
A mix of massaged kale and arugula, spritzed with more lemon zest and finished with flaky salt.
From Salon • Jan. 13, 2026
For investors, high-quality companies bring to mind financial resilience—just the thing today to offset concerns over runaway artificial-intelligence spending, or a recent rash of flaky business models, like companies that raise cash to hoard crypto.
From Barron's • Dec. 26, 2025
He picked at a flaky piece of skin on his thumb.
From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
