Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLAKE, n. [Sax. flace; D. vlaak, a hurdle for wool; vlok, a flock, a flake, a tuft; G. flocke, fluge, id.; Dan. flok, a herd, and lok, a lock or flock of wool; L. floccus; Gr. πλοκη, πλοκος; It. fiocco; Ir. flocas. Flake and flock are doubtless the same word, varied in orthography, and connected perhaps with L. plico, Gr. πλεκω. The sense is a complication, a crowd, or a lay.]

1. A small collection of snow, as it falls from the clouds or from the air; a little bunch or cluster of snowy crystals, such as fall in still moderate weather. This is a flake, lock or flock of snow.
2. A platform of hurdles, or small sticks made fast or interwoven, supported by stanchions, on which cod-fish is dried. Massachusetts.
3. A layer or stratum; as, a flake of flesh or tallow. Job xli.
4. A collection or little particle of fire, or of combustible matter on fire, separated and flying off.
5. Any scaly matter in layers; any mass cleaving off in scales. Little flakes of scurf. Addison.
6. A sort of carnations of two colors only, having large stripes going through the leaves. Encyc. White-flake, in painting, is lead corroded by means of the pressing of grapes, or a ceruse prepared by the acid of grapes. It is brought from Italy, and of a quality superior to common white lead. It is used in oil and varnished painting, when a clean white is required. Encyc.