- cake
- [[t]ke͟ɪk[/t]]
♦♦♦cakes, caking, caked1) N-VAR A cake is a sweet food made by baking a mixture of flour, eggs, sugar, and fat in an oven. Cakes may be large and cut into slices or small and intended for one person only.
...a piece of cake...
Would you like some chocolate cake?
...little cakes with white icing.
2) N-COUNT: usu supp N Food that is formed into flat round shapes before it is cooked can be referred to as cakes....fish cakes.
...home-made potato cakes.
3) N-COUNT: usu N of n A cake of soap is a small block of it....a small cake of lime-scented soap.
4) VERB If something such as blood or mud cakes, it changes from a thick liquid to a dry layer or lump.The blood had begun to cake and turn brown.
5) PHRASE: Vs inflect (disapproval) If you think that someone wants the benefits of doing two things when it is only reasonable to expect the benefits of doing one, you can say that they want to have their cake and eat it.What he wants is a switch to a market economy in a way which does not reduce people's standard of living. To many this sounds like wanting to have his cake and eat it.
6) PHRASE: V inflects, usu cont If things are selling like hot cakes, a lot of people are buying them. [INFORMAL]Books on the Royal Family are selling like hot cakes.
7) PHRASE: usu v-link PHR If you think something is very easy to do, you can say it is a piece of cake. People often say this to stop someone feeling worried about doing something they have to do. [INFORMAL]Getting rid of him will be a piece of cake...
Just another surveillance job, old chap. Piece of cake to somebody like you.
8) PHRASE: V inflects (emphasis) If someone has done something very stupid, rude, or selfish, you can say that they take the cake or that what they have done takes the cake, to emphasize your surprise at their behaviour. [AM]Syn:take the biscuit(in BRIT, use take the biscuit)
English dictionary. 2008.
