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cake (kāk)
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n.
1. A sweet baked food made of flour, liquid, eggs, and other ingredients, such as raising agents and flavorings.
2. A flat rounded mass of dough or batter, such as a pancake, that is baked or fried.
3. A flat rounded mass of hashed or chopped food that is baked or fried; a patty.
4. A shaped or molded piece, as of soap or ice.
5. A layer or deposit of compacted matter: a cake of grime in the oven.
v. caked, cak·ing, cakes
v.tr.
To cover or fill with a thick layer, as of compacted matter: a miner whose face was caked with soot.
v.intr.
To become formed into a compact or crusty mass: As temperatures dropped, the wet snow caked.

[Middle English, from Old Norse kaka.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.