cake

cake · noun

imported

Definitions

noun

  1. 1.

    A sweet baked dessert made from flour, sugar, eggs, and other ingredients, often decorated with frosting.

  2. 2.

    To form into a hard mass or crust.

  3. 3.

    A flat, compact mass of something.

Forms

plural: cakes

Phrases & expressions

  • piece of cake — something very easy
  • have your cake and eat it too — wanting to have two incompatible things
  • the icing on the cake — an attractive but inessential addition
  • take the cake — to be the most remarkable or outrageous
  • cakewalk — something easily accomplished
  • sell like hot cakes — to sell very quickly and in large quantities

Related words

Synonyms: gateau, pastry, torte

Etymology

From Old Norse kaka ("cake"), related to Middle High German kuoche and Dutch koek. The word has been in English since the 13th century.