The process of forming into a hard, compact mass or cake; the accumulation of something in a crusty or clumpy layer.
Present participle of cake, from Old Norse 'kaka.' Originally described the baking process but evolved to mean any hardening or compacting into a solid mass, from industrial processes to biological buildup.
In industrial settings, engineers are constantly fighting against caking—salt cakes in equipment, concrete cakes in mixers, and coal clogs up machinery, so 'anti-caking agents' like silicon dioxide are secretly in your table salt!
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