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cake

Syllabification: (cake)
Pronunciation: /kāk/
Translate cake | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of cake

noun

  • an item of soft, sweet food made from a mixture of flour, shortening, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients, baked and often decorated:a carrot cake [as modifier]:cake pans a mouthful of cake
  • an item of savory food formed into a flat, round shape, and typically baked or fried:crab cakes
  • a pancake:buckwheat cakes
  • a flattish, compact mass of something, especially soap:a cake of soap

verb

[with object]
  • (of a thick or sticky substance that hardens when dry) cover and become encrusted on (the surface of an object):a pair of boots caked with mud
  • [no object] (of a thick or sticky substance) dry or harden into a solid mass:the blood under his nose was beginning to cake

Phrases

cakes and ale

dated merrymaking.

a piece of cake

informal something easily achieved:I never said that training him would be a piece of cake

take the cake

surpass or exceed all others:of all the hard-hearted women, she takes the cake

you can't have your cake and eat it (too)

proverb you can’t enjoy both of two desirable but mutually exclusive alternatives.

Origin:

Middle English (denoting a small flat bread roll): of Scandinavian origin; related to Swedish kaka and Danish kage

cake in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of cake in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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