fake

Multiple Entries:
  fake    flake  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fake1

▶adjective not genuine. ▶noun a person or thing that is not genuine. ▶verb

• 1 forge or counterfeit (something).

  ■ pretend to feel or suffer from (an emotion or illness).

• 2 (fake someone out) N. Amer. informal trick or deceive someone.

– derivatives
faker noun,
fakery noun.

– origin C18 (orig. sl.): origin uncertain; perh. ult. rel. to Ger. fegen ‘sweep, thrash’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
fake2

▶noun & verb variant spelling of flake4.

– origin ME (as v.): of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
flake1

▶noun

• 1 a small, flat, very thin piece of something.

  ■ Archaeology a piece of hard stone chipped off for use as a tool.

• 2 a snowflake.

• 3 N. Amer. informal a crazy or eccentric person.

▶verb

• 1 come away from a surface in flakes.

• 2 split into flakes.

– derivatives
flaked adjective.

– origin ME: the immediate source is unknown, the senses perh. deriving from different words; prob. of Gmc origin and rel. to flag2 and flaw1.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
flake2

▶noun a rack for storing or drying food such as fish.

– origin ME (denoting a wicker hurdle): perh. of Scand. origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
flake3

▶verb (flake out) informal fall asleep; drop from exhaustion.

– origin C15 (in the senses ‘become languid’ and (of a garment) ‘fall in folds’): var. of obs. flack and flag4.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
flake4 (also fake) Nautical

▶noun a single turn of a coiled rope or hawser. ▶verb lay (a rope) in loose coils in order to prevent it tangling.

■ lay (a sail) down in folds either side of the boom.

– origin C17: of unknown origin.