flake (flak)

[Also written flaik, fleak: The painful pioners wrought against their will, With fleaks and fagots ditches vp to fill. T. Hudson, tr. of Du Bartas's Judith, iii. 116. 2. Naut . , a small stage hung over a ship's side, from which to calk or repair any breach.-3. A platform for drying salted fish; a fish-flake. flake It keeps the fish clean, and allows a current of air to pa under them, so that they dry evenly. It may consist of a series of horizontal hurdles at a convenient height from the ground, or of three-edged strips of wood nailed to frames resting on trestles or horses, with one edge uppermost so that the pickle may easily drain away. Flakes are usually made so that they can be taken down and put up when required. [New Eng. and British provinces.] Some tear down Flakes , wheron men yeerely dry their fish, to the great hurt and hindrance of many other that come after them. Whit bourne , Discoverie of New-Found-land (1622), p. 66. 4. A rack for bacon. [Prov. Eng.] -5. A wooden frame for oat-cakes. [Prov. Eng.] -6+. A sort of flap fastened to a saddle to keep the rider's knee from contact with the horse. Of birch their saddles be, Much fashioned like the Scottish seates, broad flakes to keepe the knee From sweating of the horse. Hakluyt's Voyages, L. 388. Upland flake, a flake for drying codfish, built permanently upon the shore. It differs from the ordinary pattern in not being movable.