Word Study
flaky
CIDE DICTIONARY
flaky, a.
- Consisting of flakes or of small, loose masses; lying, or cleaving off, in flakes or layers; flakelike. [1913 Webster]"What showers of mortal hail, what flaky fires!" [1913 Webster]"A flaky weight of winter's purest snows." [1913 Webster]
- prone to strange or erratic behavior; -- of persons. [PJC]
- odd, unpredictable or unconventional; offbeat; whacky; -- of behavior. [PJC]
- unpredictable, erratic, or unreliable; -- of machinery, especially electronic devices. [PJC]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
flaky, adj. (flakier, flakiest)
1 of or like flakes; separating easily into flakes.
2 esp. US sl. crazy, eccentric.
1 of or like flakes; separating easily into flakes.
2 esp. US sl. crazy, eccentric.
Idiom
flaky pastry pastry consisting of thin light layers.
Derivative
flakily adv. flakiness n.
THESAURUS
flaky
abnormal, anomalous, apish, arbitrary, asinine, asperous, balmy, bananas, barmy, bats, batty, beany, befooled, beguiled, besotted, bonkers, brainless, branny, buffoonish, buggy, bughouse, bugs, capricious, chalklike, chalky, cockeyed, comminute, comminuted, crackers, crank, crankish, cranky, crazy, credulous, crotchety, crushed, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dazed, detrital, detrited, deviant, deviative, different, dippy, disintegrated, divergent, dizzy, doting, dotty, dumb, dusty, eccentric, efflorescent, erratic, exceptional, fanciful, fantasied, fantastic, farinaceous, fatuitous, fatuous, fey, fine, flipped, flocculent, floury, fond, fool, foolheaded, foolish, freaked-out, freakish, fruitcakey, fruity, fuddled, funny, furfuraceous, futile, gaga, gone to dust, goofy, grated, ground, gulled, harebrained, haywire, humorsome, idiocratic, idiosyncratic, idiotic, imbecile, impalpable, inane, inept, infatuated, insane, irregular, just plain nuts, kinky, kooky, lentiginous, lepidote, levigated, loony, loopy, mad, maggoty, maudlin, mealy, milled, moody, moronic, motiveless, notional, nuts, nutty, odd, oddball, off the hinges, off the track, off the wall, peculiar, pestled, petulant, potty, powdered, powdery, pulverant, pulverized, pulverulent, queer, quirky, reduced to powder, round the bend, sappy, scabby, scabious, scabrous, scaly, scobicular, scobiform, screwball, screwballs, screwy, scurfy, senseless, sentimental, sharded, shredded, silly, singular, slaphappy, squamous, strange, stupid, temperamental, thoughtless, triturated, twisted, unconventional, unnatural, unreasonable, unrestrained, vagarious, vagrant, wacky, wanton, wayward, wet, whimsical, witlessROGET THESAURUS
flaky
Derangement
N derangement, disorder, evection, discomposure, disturbance, disorganization, deorganization, dislocation, perturbation, interruption, shuffling, inversion, corrugation, involvement, interchange, deranged, syncretic, syncretistic, mussy, messy, flaky, random, unordered.Layer
N layer, stratum, strata, course, bed, zone, substratum, substrata, floor, flag, stage, story, tier, slab, escarpment, table, tablet, dess, flagstone, board, plank, trencher, platter, plate, lamina, lamella, sheet, foil, wafer, scale, flake, peel, coat, pellicle, membrane, film, leaf, slice, shive, cut, rasher, shaving, integument, eschar, stratification, scaliness, nest of boxes, coats of an onion, monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, lamellar, lamellated, lamelliform, layered, laminated, laminiferous, micaceous, schistose, schistous, scaly, filmy, membranous, pellicular, flaky, squamous, foliated, foliaceous, stratified, stratiform, tabular, discoid, spathic, spathose, trilamellar, graphitic.For further exploring for "flaky" in Webster Dictionary Online