Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

cake

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Remove ads
See also: cakë and çakë

English

Etymology

    Etymology tree
    Proto-Germanic *kakǭ
    Old Norse kakabor.
    Middle English cake
    English cake

    From Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka (“cake”) (compare Norwegian kake, Icelandic/Swedish kaka, Danish kage), from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ, of disputed origin. Likely a distant cognate with kaak. Perhaps related to cookie, kuchen, and quiche. Doublet of coca (pastry).

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: kāk, IPA(key): /keɪk/, [ˈk̟ʰeɪ̯k̚]
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Audio (UK):(file)
    • Rhymes: -eɪk

    Noun

    cake (countable and uncountable, plural cakes)

    2. A rich, sweet dessert food, typically made of flour, sugar, and eggs and baked in an oven, and often covered in icing.
      Synonym: gateau
    3. A small mass of baked dough, especially a thin loaf from unleavened dough.
      an oatmeal cake
      a johnnycake
    4. A thin wafer-shaped mass of fried batter; a griddlecake or pancake.
      buckwheat cakes
    5. A block of any various dense materials.
      Synonym: block
      a cake of soap
      a cake of sand
      • 1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
        Cakes of rustling ice come rolling down the flood.
    6. (slang) Ellipsis of piece of cake: a trivially easy task or responsibility.
      Synonyms: piece of cake; see also Thesaurus:easy thing
      • 1996, “Ready or Not”, in The Score, performed by Fugees:
        Now that I escape, sleepwalk awake / Those who could relate know the world ain't cake
    7. (slang) Money.
    8. Used to describe the doctrine of having one's cake and eating it too.
      • 2018, The Guardian, "UK's aspirations for post-Brexit trade deal an illusion, says Donald Tusk", Daniel Boffey, Peter Walker, Jennifer Rankin, and Heather Stewart, 23 February 2018
        "It looks like the cake [and eat it] philosophy is still alive." Quote attributed to Donald Tusk.
    9. (slang) A pair of buttocks, especially one that is exceptionally plump or full.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks
      Since I started doing squats, I've built up some serious cake.
    10. (pyrotechnics) A multishot fireworks assembly comprising several tubes, each with a fireworks effect, lit by a single fuse.

    Usage notes

    • In North America, a biscuit is a small, soft baked bread similar to a scone but not sweet. In some cases, it can be hard (see dog biscuit). In the United Kingdom, a biscuit is a small, crisp or firm, sweet baked good — the sort of thing which in North America is called a cookie. (Less frequently, British speakers refer to crackers as biscuits.) In North America, even small, layered baked sweets like Oreos are referred to as cookies, while in the UK, typically only those biscuits which have chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, or other things baked into them are also called cookies.
    • Throughout the English-speaking world, thin, crispy, salty or savoury baked breads like in this image (saltine crackers) are called crackers, while thin, crispy, sweet baked goods like in this image (Nilla Wafers) and this image (wafer sticks) are wafers.
    • Both the US and the UK distinguish crackers, wafers and cookies/biscuits from cakes: the former are generally hard or crisp and become soft when stale, while the latter is generally soft or moist and becomes hard when stale.

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    From the plural cakes:

    Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked

    See also

    See also

    Verb

    cake (third-person singular simple present cakes, present participle caking, simple past and past participle caked)

    1. (transitive) Coat (something) with a crust of solid material.
      Synonyms: crust, encrust
      His shoes are caked with mud.
    2. (transitive) To form into a cake, or mass.
    3. (intransitive) Of blood or other liquid, to dry out and become hard.

    Derived terms

    Translations

    Further reading

    Anagrams

    Remove ads

    Albanian

    Noun

    cake

    1. indefinite dative/ablative singular of cakë

    Ambonese Malay

    Etymology

    Compare to North Moluccan Malay ceké (“to strangle, to choke, to eat (greedily)”).

    Verb

    cake

    1. (angry register) to eat
      Synonym: makang
      Kalu ale su cake jang bicara lai! ― Do not speak when you're eating!

    References

    • D. Takaria, C. Pieter (1998), Kamus Bahasa Melayu Ambon-Indonesia‎, Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa

    Dutch

    Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia nl

    Etymology

    Borrowed from English cake. Doublet of kaak.

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    cake m (plural cakes, diminutive cakeje n)

    1. pound cake

    Derived terms

    Fijian

    Etymology

    From Proto-Oceanic *sake (compare with Maori eke, Samoan eʻe, Tongan heka), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *sakay (“to ride on something”) (compare with Ilocano sakáy (“to ride, to mound”) and Tagalog sakáy (“passenger, load”)).

    Adverb

    cake

    1. up

    References

    Remove ads

    French

    Etymology

    Borrowed from English cake.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /kɛk/
    • Audio (France (Vosges)):(file)
    • Audio (France (Vosges)):(file)
    • Audio (France (Vosges)):(file)
    • Audio (France (Lyon)):(file)

    Noun

    cake m (plural cakes)

    1. fruitcake (containing rum)
    2. quick bread (a smallish loaf-shaped baked good which may be sweet like an English cake or salty and with bits of meat. See insert)

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    Further reading

    Remove ads

    Middle English

    Alternative forms

    Etymology

      From Old Norse kaka, from Proto-Germanic *kakǭ.

      Pronunciation

      Noun

      cake (plural cakes)

      1. A cake (any sort of flat doughy food):
        1. (medicine) A cake prepared to cure disease or illness.
        2. (Christianity, rare) A communion wafer.
      2. (rare) A lump, boil, or ball.

      Derived terms

      Descendants

      • English: cake (see there for further descendants)
      • Geordie: kyek
      • Scots: cake, cyaak, kyaak
      • Yola: caake, kaake
      • → Irish: cáca
      • →⇒ Welsh: cacen

      References

      Remove ads

      Spanish

      Etymology

      Unadapted borrowing from English cake, from Middle English cake, from Old Norse kaka. Doublet of queque.

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): /ˈkeik/ [ˈkei̯k]
      • Rhymes: -eik

      Noun

      cake m (plural cakes)

      1. cake; fruitcake

      Usage notes

      According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

      Remove ads

      Tocharian B

      Etymology

      From Proto-Indo-European *ték(ʷ)os.

      Noun

      cake ?

      1. river

      References

      • Adams, Douglas Q. (2013), A Dictionary of Tocharian B: Revised and Greatly Enlarged (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 10), Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, →ISBN

      Wikiwand - on

      Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

      Remove ads
      Remove ads