▪ I. cake, n.
(keɪk)
Also 4 kaak, 4–6 kake, 6 Sc. caik.
[ME. kake, cake, 13th c., identical with, and prob. a. ON. kaka fem. (mod.Icel. and Sw. kaka, Da. kage) in same sense, pointing to an OTeut. *kakâ-. An ablaut-derivative from the same root kak- is OHG. chuohho (MHG. kuoche, Ger. kuche), MLG. kôke, MDu. coeke (Du. koek), all masc., pointing to a WGer. *kôkon-. The ulterior history is unknown, but the stem (Aryan type *gag-) can in no way be related to L. coquĕre to cook, as formerly supposed.]
1. As name of an object, with plural: A baked mass of bread or substance of similar kind, distinguished from a loaf or other ordinary bread, either by its form or by its composition: a. orig. A comparatively small flattened sort of bread, round, oval, or otherwise regularly shaped, and usually baked hard on both sides by being turned during the process.
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 37 Hire cake bearneð o þe stan. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 635 Þrwe þryftyly þer-on þo þre þerue kakez. 1382 Wyclif 1 Sam. ii. 36 That..he offre a silueren peny, and a round kaak of breed. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lxvii. (1495) 643 Some brede is bake and tornyd and wende at fyre and is callyd..a cake. 1483 Cath. Angl. 51 A Cake, torta, tortula. 1530 Palsgr. 202/2 Cake of fyne floure made in a print of yron, gavfre. 1542 Boorde Introd. Knowl. xxvii. 194 A peny worth of whyte bread..ix. kakys for a peny; and a kake serued me a daye. 1611 Bible Ex. xii. 39 They baked vnleauened cakes. ― Hosea vii. 8 Ephraim is a cake not turned. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T. Mark viii. 4 Their Loaves then were but like our Cakes, by the custom of breaking them. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. v. 97, I..reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day. 1879 Froude Cæsar xxii. 381 They made cakes out of roots, ground into paste and mixed with milk. Mod. King Alfred and the cakes. |
b. In Scotland (parts of Wales, and north of England),
spec. a thin hard-baked brittle species of oaten-bread. Hence the name
Land of Cakes (
i.e. of oaten bread), applied (originally in banter) to Scotland, or the Scottish Lowlands.
| a 1572 Knox Hist. Ref. (1732) 42 (Jam.) That winter following sa nurturit the Frenche men, that they leirnit to eit, yea, to beg caikis, quhilk at their entry they scornit. 1620 Venner Via Recta i. 17 Of Oates in Wales, and some of the Northerne shires of England, they make bread, especially in manner of Cakes. 1669 Sir R. Moray in Lauderdale Papers (1885) II. cxiv. 171 If you do not come out of the land of cakes before New Year's day. 1715 Pennecuick's Tweeddale Note 89 (Jam.) The oat-cake, known by the sole appellative of cake, is the bread of the cottagers. c 1730 Burt Lett. N. Scotl. (1818) II. 164 The Lowlanders call their part of the country the land of cakes. 1789 Burns Capt. Grose i, Hear, Land o' Cakes, and brither Scots. 1864 A. M{supc}Kay Hist. Kilmarnock 113 With abundance of cakes. Mod. Country children in Scotland still ‘seek their cakes’ on Hogmanay or ‘Cake-day’. Among the rimes used, one hears ‘My feet's cauld, my shoon's thin, Gie's my cakes, and let's rin.’ |
c. In England, cakes (in sense a) have long been treated as fancy bread, and sweetened or flavoured; hence, the current sense:
A composition having a basis of bread, but containing additional ingredients, as butter, sugar, spices, currants, raisins, etc. At first, this was a cake also in form, but it is no longer necessarily so, being now made of any serviceable, ornamental, or fanciful shape;
e.g. a
tea-,
plum-,
wedding-cake, etc.
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 50 Geder hit [the eggs, tansy and butter, for a tansy cake] on a cake..With platere of tre, and frye hit browne. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 100 His mother left bringing of wine and cakes to the church. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 233 Observe the composition of Cakes, which are frequently eaten..In them there are commonly Flour, Butter, Eggs, Milk, Fruit, Spice, Sugar, Sack, Rose-Water and Sweet-Meats, as Citron, or the like. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 220 ¶8 Banbury..was a Place famous for Cakes and Zeal. 1816 Southey Poet's Pilgr. i. 44 Assche for water and for cakes renown'd. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 71 Sweet cakes, or biscuits, of an annular form. Mod. At the conclusion of the ceremony each child was regaled with a cake. To buy a cake for the christening. |
2. As a substance, without plural: Fancy bread of the kind mentioned in 1 c. (In Scotland, plain oatmeal bread of the kind mentioned in 1 b.)
| 1579 Fulke Confut. Sanders 591 The last answere is as good as cake and pudding. 1633 B. Jonson T. Tub ii. i. (N.) If he ha' cake And drink enough, he need not vear [fear] his stake. Mod. Little boys are fond of cake. To buy a pound of cake at the confectioner's. To send wedding-cake to friends at a distance. No cards; no cake. |
3. Applied to other preparations of food, not of the nature of bread, made in the form of a rounded flattened mass;
e.g. a
fish-cake,
potato-cake,
pan-cake. (The last named has the characteristics of a cake in the original sense, except that it is cooked soft, eaten hot, and is reckoned not as bread, but as a kind of pudding).
4. a. A mass or concretion of any solidified or compressed substance in a flattened form, as a cake of soap, wax, paint, dry clay, coagulated blood, tobacco, etc. See also
ague-cake, elf-cake.
| 1528 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 267, ij cakes of wax. 1597 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 2 Vse it..in thy potage to heale the elfe cake. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1368/1 Their cakes of waxe which they call Agnus Dei. 1626 Bacon Sylva §552 A Cake that groweth upon the side of a dead tree..large and of a Chesnut colour, and hard and pithy. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 36 It [earth] soon melted and became a Cake in the bottom. 1799 G. Smith Laborat. I. 122 Take it [the enamel] off the fire, make it into cakes, and preserve it for use. 1833 Marryat P. Simple iv, Four cakes of Windsor, and two bars of yellow for washing. 1884 Manch. Exam. 29 Feb. 5/3 A parcel of cakes of dynamite. |
b. fig.| 1872 Bagehot Physics & Pol. (1876) 27 To create what may be called a cake of custom. 1879 H. George Progr. & Pov. x. i. (1881) 433 A body or ‘cake’ of laws and customs grows up. |
c. A substance (such as cotton-seed, linseed, etc.) compressed in a flat form and used for feeding cattle, etc. Freq. with defining word, as cotton-
cake,
linseed cake. Also
attrib. and
Comb.| 1757 [see oilcake]. 1833 Niles' Reg. XLIV. 222/1 The cake is the very best food for stock. a 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 152 Cake grinder, a machine for breaking linseed oil cake for food for stock. 1886 R. E. G. Cole Gloss. S.W. Lincs. 24 Cake, usual term for the Linseed Cake, used for fattening cattle. Some men run up a great cäek bill their last year. 1894 Country Gentleman's Catal. 14/2 A few acres of autumn cabbage will maintain and fatten, with the aid of corn or cake, of course, a large flock of sheep. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 57 Patent Meat Fibrine Vegetable Dog Cakes... Patent Cod Liver Oil Dog Cakes. 1916 E. Blunden Barn 20 The smell of apples..And homely cattle-cake. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 26 Jan. 92/3 Those ewes whose body weights were maintained..by cake-feeding. Ibid., The cake-fed ewes. |
d. In the manufacture of artificial silk: (see
quots.).
| 1927 T. Woodhouse Artificial Silk 42 An annular package of yarn is gradually built up by the succeeding layers of yarn. This annular package is called a ‘cake’. 1963 A. J. Hall Textile Sci. ii. 46 Fibres..are collected into the form of a thread F to be drawn over rotating Godet wheel B and fall down into the rotating centrifugal Topham pot T to be built up inside as a ball or ‘cake’. |
5. Heraldry. A bearing resembling the bezant; a roundel.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Her. C iij b, Besantys and lytill cakys differ not bot in colore, for besanttis be euer of golden coloure. |
6. dial. and
slang. A foolish or stupid fellow.
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Cake or Cakey, a foolish fellow. 1847–78 in Halliwell. 1877 Peacock N. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) Cake, a silly person, especially one fat and sluggish. 1881 Evans Leicester. Was., Cake, a noodle. |
7. a. Cake is often used figuratively in obvious allusion to its estimation (
esp. by children) as a ‘good thing’, the dainty, delicacy, or ‘sweets’ of a repast. So
cakes and ale,
cake and cheese (
Scotl.).
to take the cake, (
† U.S. cakes): to carry off the honours, rank first; often used ironically or as an expression of surprise.
Cf. biscuit 1 d.
| 1579 [see 2]. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iii. 124 Dost thou thinke because thou art vertuous, there shall be no more Cakes and Ale? 1606 Day Ile of Gulls iii. i. (1881) 68 That's Cake and Cheese to the Countrie. 1847 W. T. Porter Quarter Race Kentucky 120 They got up a horse and fifty dollars in money a side,..each one to start and ride his own horse,..the winning horse take the cakes. 1854 Blackw. Mag. LXXVI. 702 Malcolm is, par excellence, the ‘cake’ of the corps dramatique. 1884 Lisbon (Dakota) Star 25 July, Sherriff Moore takes the cake for the first wheat-harvesting in Ransom county. 1886 Garden 5 June 519/1 The gardener's life, as a rule, is not all ‘cakes and ale’. 1886 Pall Mall G. 2 Sept. 5/1 As a purveyor of light literature..Mr. Norris takes the cake. 1900 T. Dreiser Sister Carrie xxiii. 249 Pack up and pull out, eh? You take the cake. 1904 A. Bennett Great Man xxv. 275 My bold buccaneer, you take the cake... There is something about you that is colossal, immense, and magnificent. 1938 G. Heyer Blunt Instr. ix. 158 I've met some kill-joys in my time, but you fairly take the cake. |
b. In phrases, as
the national cake, or, allusively,
(the) cake, the assets or proceeds of a national, etc., economy, regarded collectively as something to be shared out.
| 1750 Earl of Holdernesse in Ellis Orig. Lett. ii. 466 IV. 390 If I stay in [office], I must now have my share of the Cake. 1949 New Statesman 22 Oct. 443/2 A general free fight between capital and labour for their respective shares of the national cake. 1957 Listener 8 Aug. 188/1 German labour may be about to demand a larger slice of the recovery cake. 1958 Engineering 28 Mar. 391/1 They [sc. trade unions] have for long thought that their job of getting more of the cake out of employers included advising on how to increase the cake. |
c. Colloq. phr. a piece of cake: something easy or pleasant.
| 1936 O. Nash Primrose Path 172 Her picture's in the papers now, And life's a piece of cake. 1942 T. Rattigan Flare Path 1, Special. Very hush-hush. Not exactly a piece of cake, I believe. 1943 P. Brennan et al. Spitfires over Malta i. 31 The mass raids promised to be a piece of cake, and we anticipated taking heavy toll of the raiders. 1960 T. McLean Kings of Rugby 205 They took the field against Canterbury as if the match were ‘a piece of cake’. |
8. Proverbs.
you can't eat your cake and have it (see
quots.).
one's cake is dough: one's project has failed of success.
every cake has its make,
mate, or
fellow (
north. dial. and
Sc.).
| 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 79 What man, I trow ye raue, Wolde ye bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake? 1563 Becon Displ. Popish Mass in Wks. III. f. xlviii, Or ells your Cake is dough & al your fatte lye in the fyre. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. i. i. 110 Our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell. 1641 D. Ferguson Scot. Prov. in Ray Prov. (1670) 293 There was never a cake, but it had a make. 1678 Ray Prov. 68 Every cake hath its make, but a scrape-cake hath two. 1687 Settle Reflect. Dryden 4 She is sorry his cake is dough, and that he came not soon enough to speed. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. vi, You shall have rare Sport anon, if my Cake ben't Dough, and my Plot do but take. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 130 As ridiculous as the way of children, who eat their cake, and afterwards cry for it..They shou'd be told, as children, that they can't eat their cake, and have it. 1815 Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. XII. 589 Our own government also..having got their cake, want both to eat it and keep it. 1860 [see dough n. 1 b]. 1934 J. Farnol Winds of Fortune v. 31 Thy cake's dough, eh, Japhet; art cheated o' thy dear vengeance, lad! |
9. Comb. a. (senses 1, 2), as
cake-basket,
cake-bowl,
cake-cutter,
cake-maker,
cake-making,
cake-man,
cake-mould,
cake-plate,
cake-stall,
cake-stand;
b. (sense 4), as
cake-colour,
cake-copper,
cake-ink,
cake-lac,
cake-soap;
c. adjs., as
cake-bearing,
cake-like;
d. cake-eater U.S. slang, a self-indulgent or effeminate man; a playboy;
† cake-fiddler,
cake-fumbler, a parasite;
cake-hole slang, a person's mouth;
cake-meal, ‘linseed meal obtained by grinding the cake after the expression of the oil’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex.);
cake-mix, the prepared ingredients of a cake sold ready for cooking;
cake-mixer (see
quot. a 1877);
cake-tin, (
a) a tin in which cakes are baked; (
b) a tin in which cakes are stored;
cake-urchin, a popular name for Echinoderms of a discoid shape. See also
cake-bread, -house.
| 1805 in Mrs. E. S. Bowne Life (1888) 205, 1 plated *Cake Basket silver rims. 1956 G. Taylor Silver vii. 145 The many elaborately pierced cake-baskets. |
| 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 510 As in all *Cake-bearing (called..Placentifera), and in all Kernel-bearing (called Glandulifera) or Ruminating Animals. |
| 1874 Mrs. Whitney We Girls ii. 43 A *cake-bowl in one hand, and an egg-beater in the other. |
| 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iii. xxxvi, Rubbing..*cake colours in a very smooth saucer. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 294 The pigments are prepared..as dry cake colours, as moist colours in earthenware pans..and in metal collapsible tubes. |
| 1803 Hatchett Phil. Trans. XCIII. 90 note, The fine granulated copper is made in this country from the Swedish *cake-copper. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Cake-copper, Tough cake, refined or commercial copper. |
| 1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery xi. 261 Croutons..stamped out..with a round or fluted paste or *cake cutter. |
| 1922 Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Okla.) 6 Jan. 10/4 He calls us ‘lounge lizards, tea drinkers, *cake eaters and all that’. |
| 1513 Douglas æneis, Transl. to Rdr. 75, I am na *cayk fydlar [1553 *caik fumler], full weil ye knawe. |
| 1943 Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 20 *Cake hole, the airman's name for his or anyone else's mouth. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren x. 194 Shut your cake-hole. |
| 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 4022/4 The Universal *Cake-Ink. |
| 1883 Cassell's Fam. Mag. Oct. 686/1 The sediment..is formed into small, square cakes..known as lac-dye, or *cake-lac. |
| 1835 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 764/2 The *cake-like organ..which covers the ear. |
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Turronero, a *cakemaker, pistor placentarius. |
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 221 The preservings, the picklings, the *cake-makings. |
| 1832 Ibid. Ser. v. (1863) 410 We turned off our old stupid deaf *cakeman. |
| [1938 Fiene & Blumenthal Handbook Food Manuf. 332 Sponge *cake mix.] 1950 Canad. Home Jrnl. Jan. 24 The cake-mix... The package which would yield the principal makings for a good cake. 1957 Which? I. i. 15/1 Packaged cake-mixes are undoubtedly time-and-labour-saving. |
| a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 422/2 *Cake-mixer, a device for incorporating together the ingredients of cake, etc. 1906 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 Jan. 5/5 Come down to 80 Douglas street and get..a Cake Mixer (it whips cream, beats eggs and mixes cake). |
| c 1865 Circ. Sc. I. 343/1 Inspissated juice..poured into..*cake-moulds. |
| 1867 A. D. T. Whitney L. Goldthwaite x, *Cake-plates were garnished with wreathed oak-leaves. |
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 305 Dissolve therein one ounce of *Cake-sope. |
| 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile i. 5 The old Turk who sets up his *cake-stall in the sculptured recess of a Moorish doorway. |
| 1851 J. J. Hooper Widow Rugby's Husb. 106 Here he went..clearing an old woman and her *cake-stand at a jump. 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 533/3 China Fruit or Cake Stand..measure[s] 12 inches across and 5½ inches high. 1903 A. Bennett Leonora iii. 80 A cakestand in three storeys. 1953 G. Greene Living Room i. i, A cake-stand with bread-and-butter on one level and a plum cake on another. 1963 Times 25 May 6/1 He described the ‘cake stand’ of ministerial hierarchy—chocolate biscuits on top, cream buns underneath, and buttered scones at the bottom. |
| 1846 ‘A Lady’ Jewish Manual Cookery vii. 139 Put the apples into an oval *cake tin. 1906 E. Nesbit Railway Children ii. 24 In the pantry there was only a rusty cake-tin and a broken plate. 1965 ‘T. Hinde’ Games of Chance ii. i. 155 I'd..been relieved to find in the cake-tin that yesterday's Swiss roll had only been reduced by three inches. |
▪ II. cake, v. (
keɪk)
[f. prec. n.] 1. a. trans. To form or harden into a cake or flattish compact mass: also
fig. (Chiefly
pass.)
| 1607 Shakes. Timon ii. ii. 225 Their blood is cak'd: 'tis cold, it sildome flowes. 1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 17 Turn it over after it is Caked, it will again burn brisk. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. (1840) 98 It [a Barrel of Gun-powder] had taken Water, and the Powder was cak'd as hard as a Stone. 1848–77 M. Arnold Sohrab & R. Poems (1877) I. 115 The big warm tears roll'd down, and caked the sand. |
b. To encrust or cover thickly
with. Usu.
pass.| 1922 W. Cather One of Ours iii. viii. 233 Claude came downstairs early and began to clean his boots, which were caked with dry mud. 1957 ‘R. West’ Fountain Overflows xv. 328 She held up to us some lengths of string, some of them joined by knots caked with red sealing-wax. 1966 D. Bagley Wyatt's Hurricane ix. 248 Wyatt looked at the others—they were caked with sticky mud from head to foot and he looked down at himself to find the same. 1977 P. L. Fermor Time of Gifts iii. 56 With freezing cheeks and hair caked with snow, I clumped into an entrancing haven of oak beams and carving and alcoves and changing floor levels. |
2. intr. (for
refl.). To form (itself) into a cake or flattened mass. Const.
together.
| 1615 H. Crooke Body of Man 88 Lead as soone as it is taken off the fire..caketh together. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 49 Coale..such as will not cake or knit in the burning. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xii. 212 The powder..caking and growing hard. 1814 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 183 The stiff clays..in dry weather..cake, and present only a small surface to the air. |
3. trans. To feed (cattle, etc.) on cake (see
cake n. 4 c). Also
absol.| 1851 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XII. ii. 334 Many farmers cake their hogs on the turnips. 1889 E. Peacock Gloss. Manley (ed. 2) I. 626 Cake, to feed cattle with linseed or cotton cake. I alus caake my yohs e' winter as well as th' hogs. 1904 Kipling They (1905) 71 You've sixty-seven [bullocks] and you don't cake. |