Meaning & use
flaky
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Easily breaking or separating into thin, light layers or small pieces, as pastry, dry skin or paint can.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a verb: flaky pastry, the paint is flaky.
Patterns
- flaky pastry
The croissant was buttery and wonderfully flaky.
Dry weather left his skin flaky and rough.
The old paint on the fence had become flaky and began to peel.
adjectivecomparableinformal
Unreliable, and likely to forget, cancel or change plans without warning.
Grammar: Informal; describes people: a flaky friend.
Patterns
- flaky about something
My flaky roommate promised to help and then never showed up.
She is lovely but a bit flaky about returning calls.
Don't rely on him for the deadline; he's pretty flaky.
adjectivecomparableinformalcomputing
Of software, equipment or tests, working inconsistently or failing at random.
Grammar: Common in computing: a flaky connection or flaky test.
Patterns
- a flaky connection
The flaky Wi-Fi kept dropping during the video call.
Developers hate flaky tests that pass on some runs and fail on others.
Word forms
| comparative | flakier |
|---|---|
| superlative | flakiest |
Common combinations
- flaky pastry
- Her flaky pastry melts in the mouth.
- flaky skin
- A good moisturizer can ease flaky skin.
- flaky friend
- Everyone has a flaky friend who cancels at the last minute.
- flaky connection
- A flaky connection made the meeting difficult.
- flaky test
- The team fixed the flaky test that failed every few runs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unreliable
- Unreliable is the neutral word for someone or something you cannot trust, while flaky is informal and often suggests casual forgetfulness.
- scaly
- Scaly describes skin covered in small plates, which is a more fixed texture than the loose pieces of flaky.
- erratic
- Erratic stresses unpredictable behavior or movement, but flaky adds the sense of letting people down.
- crumbly
- Crumbly breaks into small grains or lumps, whereas flaky breaks into thin layers.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: flaky or fluky?
flaky vs fluky
Fluky means resulting from luck or chance, as in a fluky goal; it is not about unreliability of character.
Practice
Which meaning of "flaky" is used in: "I wouldn't count on Jordan; he's flaky and often cancels at the last minute"?
Choose one answer.
Someone who cancels at the last minute is unreliable. Crisp and layered applies to pastry, not to a person's behavior.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “flaky”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.