ENGLISH
REFERENCE

flake out

phr. v..
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford Informal

phr. v.. to cancel plans at the last minute or fail to show up as promised. It can also mean to fall asleep suddenly because you are very tired.

phr. v.. to cancel or fail to attend a scheduled social engagement, typically at short notice; also used to describe collapsing or falling asleep due to exhaustion.


SIMPLE

I'm sorry I flaked out on our dinner date last night.

CONTEXTUAL

He was supposed to help me move house, but he flaked out at the last minute.

COMPLEX

After forty-eight hours of continuous coding, the entire development team flaked out on the office sofas, leaving the final deployment for the following morning.

Particles
out
Separability
inseparable
Pattern
flake + out (+ on + object)
Usage

often used with the preposition 'on' followed by a person or an event.

Teaching tip

the noun form 'flake' describes a person who habitually does this; it is a high-frequency term in modern social media and texting contexts.

Pitfall

He flaked out the meeting.He flaked out on the meeting.when mentioning the specific event or person you missed, you must use the preposition 'on'.

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