English▸ noun an item of soft, sweet food made from a mixture of flour, shortening, eggs, sugar, and other ingredients, baked and often decorated:
a carrot cake
[as modifier] cake pans
a mouthful of cake.
▪ an item of savory food formed into a flat, round shape, and typically baked or fried:
crab cakes
buckwheat cakes.
▪ a flattish, compact mass of something, especially soap:
a cake of soap.
▸ verb [with object] (of a thick or sticky substance that hardens when dry) cover and become encrusted on (the surface of an object):
a pair of boots caked with mud.
▪ [no object] (of a thick or sticky substance) dry or harden into a solid mass:
the blood under his nose was beginning to cake.
– ORIGIN Middle English (denoting a small flat bread roll): of Scandinavian origin; related to Swedish kaka and Danish kage.