flake n.— «I prefer mulches that break down readily in the soil and are easy to lay down. I used to buy salt hay, which grows in coastal marshes, because the seeds it contains don’t germinate in gardens. But it’s less available now, so I use straw...
flake n.— «A big flake of straw thrown out onto the snow, along with some scratch feed, made it a bit more tempting a place to explore and soon half the flock were out in the sun.» —“Spring cleaning in January” by Vicki Biggs-Anderson Cook County...
flake n. a (packed, firm, or cohesive) portion of animal fodder such as hay or straw, smaller than a bale and larger than a handful. Editorial Note: The size of a flake is not fixed, as you can see in the citations where it is variously explained as...
soda straw effect n.— «One of the great difficulties of assessing the war is overcoming what some officers call the “soda straw effect,” i.e., having a constricted view during travels but thinking that what you’re seeing somehow represents the...
permie n.— «Permaculturists—they call themselves “permies”—had converged on Merritt from as far away as Texas and Missouri.…Permaculture is clearly more than a style of gardening for these folks; it’s a way of life. There are rival schools and...
scarecrow n.— «The NYPD is using unmanned police cars on major highways as a deterrent to speeders, the Daily News has learned. The vacant vehicles—derisively referred to as scarecrows by some cops—were blasted by the city’s police union chief as a...
