[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To form or harden into a cake or flattish compact mass: also fig. (Chiefly passive.)
1607. Shaks., Timon, II. ii. 225. Their blood is cak’d: ’tis cold, it sildome flowes.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 17. Turn it over after it is Caked, it will again burn brisk.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (1840), 98. It [a barrel of gunpowder] had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone.
1848–77. M. Arnold, Sohrab & R., Poems (1877), I. 115. The big warm tears roll’d down, and caked the sand.
2. intr. (for refl.) To form (itself) into a cake or flattened mass. Const. together.
1615. H. Crooke, Body of Man, 88. Lead as soone as it is taken off the fire … caketh together.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 49. Coale … such as will not cake or knit in the burning.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), I. xii. 212. The powder … caking and growing hard.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 183. The stiff clays … in dry weather … cake, and present only a small surface to the air.
