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It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language. |
FLAKE, n. [L. floccus; Gr. Flake and flock are doubtless the same word, varied in orthography, and connected perhaps with L. plico, Gr. The sense is a complication, a crowd, or a lay.]
Job. 41.
FLAKE, v.t. To form into flakes.
FLAKE, v.i. To break or separate in layers; to peel or scale off. We more usually say, to flake off.
A paling; a hurdle.
[prov. Eng.] A platform of hurdles, or small sticks
made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, for drying codfish
and other things.
You shall also, after they be ripe, neither suffer them to have straw nor fern under them, but lay them either upon some smooth table, boards, or flakes of wands, and they will last the longer. English Husbandman. A small stage hung over a
vessel's side, for workmen to stand on in calking, etc.
A
loose filmy mass or a thin chiplike layer of anything; a film; flock;
lamina; layer; scale; as, a flake of snow, tallow, or
fish.
"Lottle flakes of scurf." Addison.
Great flakes of ice encompassing our boat. Evelyn. A little particle of lighted or
incandescent matter, darted from a fire; a flash.
With flakes of ruddy fire. Somerville. A sort of carnation with
only two colors in the flower, the petals having large stripes.
Flake knife (Archæol.), a
cutting instrument used by savage tribes, made of a flake or chip of
hard stone. Tylor. -- Flake stand,
the cooling tub or vessel of a still worm. Knight. --
Flake white. (Paint.) To form into flakes.
Pope. To separate in
flakes] to peel or scale off.
A flat layer, or fake, of a coiled cable.
Flake after flake ran out of the tubs, until we were compelled to hand the end of our line to the second mate. F. T. Bullen. | ||||||||