flat

▪ I. † flat, n.¹ Obs.
    [a. OF. flat.]
    A blow, buffet.

c 1320 Sir Beues 3432 Þe king of Scotlonde, wiþ is bat A ȝaf him swiche a sori flat Vpon þe helm. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 4910 Ther com the king Gvinbat, And gaf Gueheres swiche a flat.

▪ II. flat, n.²
    (flæt)
    [Alteration of flet, influenced by flat a. and n.³ The word was until recently peculiar to Scotland, where the original form survived into the present century.]
    1. A floor or storey in a house.

1801 A. Ranken Hist. France I. 442 The houses consisted of several flats or stories. 1827 Ann. Reg. 143 A tenement, consisting of three flats. 1861 Morning Post 27 Nov., The numerous family..in the fourth flat. 1887 Times 27 Aug. 11/3 A fire broke out in a flat of the mill.

    2. A suite of rooms on one floor, forming a complete residence. first, second, etc. flat: a suite on the first, second, etc. floor. In recent use, not necessarily a suite or a complete residence: also used even of one room with shared access to others.

1824 Scott Redgauntlet v, We chose to imitate some of the conveniences..of an English dwelling-house, instead of living piled up above each other in flats. 1845 Mrs. Johnstone Edin. Tales I. 267/2 That comfortable, airy, roomy, first-flat, consisting of dining-room, parlour, three bed⁓rooms. 1887 M. E. Braddon Like & Unlike II. iv., The rents of these flats seem to be extortionate.

    3. attrib. and Comb., as flatdom, flat-house, flat-land, flat-law, flat-lord [after landlord n. 1], flat-mate; flat-builder, flat-dweller, flat-holder; flat-breaking, flat-dwelling, flat-hunting, flat-letting, flat-warming.

1936 J. Curtis Gilt Kid xxx. 289 These crimes of housebreaking and *flatbreaking are far too common.

1889 Pall Mall G. 21 May 6/3 The cunning way in which the flats are planned deserves study by all *flat-builders.

1926 Glasgow Herald 2 Mar. 9 The centre of aristocratic *flatdom has also the reputation of being the abiding place of all that is best in dogdom.

1894 Daily News 4 Jan. 4/7 *Flat-dwellers and Hygiene.

1911 Tariff Reform League: Rep. Labour & Soc. Cond. Germany III. 173 In the attics of these ‘*flat’ dwellings there is a store for each tenant. 1937 Sunday Dispatch 24 Jan. 2/1 So we resigned ourselves to flat-dwelling for ever. 1971 News of World 26 Sept. 8/7 Cats with access to gardens like to dose themselves regularly. It is hard on the flat dwelling cat when he cannot do so.

1894 Westm. Gaz. 10 Feb. 2/2 The defencelessness of the *flat-holder has been found out.

1884 Times (weekly ed.) 12 Sept. 14/1 Enormous ‘*flat’ houses.

1920 J. Joyce Let. 11 Oct. (1966) III. 24 Am very busy *flat hunting. 1924 A. Christie Poirot Investigates iii. 73 A horrid thing to do..but you know what flat-hunting is.

1889 E. Dowson Let. 16 Nov. (1967) 117, I shall be spending the next 40 hours or so in *Flatland. 1901 Daily News 20 Apr. 4/5 An interesting study in flat-land was provided yesterday at the Royal Courts of Justice, when the owner of a block of flats sued a tenant for a quarter's rent. 1971 Rand Daily Mail 3 Apr. 1/8 Within three years Johannesburg's congested flatland will have gained nearly 6500 new flats.

1894 Westm. Gaz. 10 Feb. 2/2 She will settle a question of *flat-law.

1906 Westm. Gaz. 8 Feb. 5/1 Another firm of estate agents..stated that the outlook in the *flat-letting business was anything but cheerful.

1909 Ibid. 2 June 2/1 Its pious pretence is to warn simple *flatlords against non-payers of rent.

1960 Woman 5 Mar. 71/1 All the colourful tales your *flat-mates tell you. 1965 K. Giles Some Beasts no More i. 18 One day he doesn't come home and his little flatmate eventually gets round to telling the coppers.

1942 Penguin New Writing XV. 70 Felix was giving a flat-warming.

▪ III. flat, a., adv., and n.³
    (flæt)
    Forms: 5–7 flatte, (9 dial.) flatt, 4– flat.
    [a. ON. flatr (Sw. flat, Da. flad) = OHG. flaȥ:—OTeut. *flato-. Cf. flet.
    No certain cognates are known; connexion with OAryan *plat-, plath- (Gr. πλατύς, Skr. prth{uacu}, broad) is plausible with regard to the sense (cf. F. plat flat, believed to be ultimately from πλατύς), but the representation of OAryan t or th by Teut. t (exc. when reduced from tt after a long vowel) is anomalous. The synonymous Ger. flach is unconnected.]
    A. adj. I. Literal senses.
    1. a. Horizontally level; without inclination. Of a seam of coal: Lying in its original plane of deposition; not tilted.

c 1400 Destr. Troy 7326 He felle to þe flat erthe. c 1440 Prom. Parv. 164/1 Flatt, bassus vel planus. 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 7 Thou all-shaking Thunder, Strike flat the thicke Rotundity o' th' world. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 35 Houses..flat a-top. 1634 Milton Comus 375 Though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. vii. v. 6 As the common flat Mariners Compass doth divide the Horizon. 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. I. 268 The strata near the Esk are termed flat seams of coal. 1842–76 Gwilt Archit. §1903 g, In India..all buildings of any importance have flat roofs. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ix. 62, I reached the flat summit of the rock. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight ix. 133 A flat desk promotes a stooping position.

    b. Arch. flat arch (see quots.).

1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. i. xxiv, Arches..flat (those are call'd so, which are but a Section of a Circle). Ibid. i. xxv, Certain Arches are turn'd over the Cornices of Doors and Windows, which Workmen call Flat-Arches, to prevent the Doors and Windows from being press'd with too much weight. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1765) I. v. 114 This Saxon style begins to be defined by flat and round arches. 1872 Shipley Gloss. Eccles. Terms, Flat arch. An arch in which the sides of the voussoirs are cut so as to support each other, but their ends form a straight line top and bottom.

    2. Spread out, stretched or lying at full length (esp. on the ground); rare, exc. in predicative use (often quasi-advb.) with fall, fling, lay, lie, etc. a. Chiefly of a person: Prostrate; with the body at full length. † Also in phr. a flat fall.

c 1320 Sir Beues 1040 A felde him flat to grounde. 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles ii. 183 [The birds] ffell with her ffetheris fflat vppon þe erthe..and mercy be-souȝte. c 1440 Jacob's Well 23 Sche..flatt on þe ground cryed: ‘god..haue mercy on me!’ c 1450 Holland Howlat 838 The folk..Flang him flat in the fyre. 1535 Coverdale Isa. xlix. 23 They shal fall before the with their faces flat vpon the earth. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 16, I'le fall flat, Perchance he will not minde me. 1621 Lady M. Wroth Urania 138 None parting from him without flat falles, or apparant losse of honour. 1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 56 Thus a great wound is called a scratch; a flat fall, a foile. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. xiv. 293 He laid me flat on the ground. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 290, I order'd every Man..to lye flat upon their Bellies till we had received the Fire of the Enemy. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxx. 411 The hunter is flat and motionless. 1860–1 F. Nightingale Nursing 33, I have seen a patient fall flat on the ground who was standing when his nurse came into the room. 1891 R. Kipling Plain Tales from Hills 186 That night a big wind blew..the tents flat.

    b. Of a building or city: Level with the ground; also, levelled, overthrown.

1560 Bible (Genev.) Josh. vi. 20 The wall fell downe flat. 1607 Shakes. Cor. iii. i. 204 This is the way to lay the Citie flat. 1666 South Serm. Consecr. Bp. Rochester Serm. (1737) I. v. 166 That Christ-Church stands so high above ground, and that the church of Westminster lies not flat upon it, is [etc.]. 1671 Milton P.R. iv. 363 What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat.

fig. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. iv. 23 To fortifie her iudgement, which else an easie battery might lay flat.

    c. Of things usually more or less erect or elevated.

1671 Milton P.R. ii. 223 Cease to admire, and all her Plumes Fall flat.

fig. 1671 Milton Samson 596, I feel..My hopes all flat. 1684 T. Hockin God's Decrees 333 To raise our expectations of happiness high, and then to have them fall flat and low.

    † d. Of a plant: Creeping, trailing on the ground.

1578 Lyte Dodoens i. lxxxvi. 127 Verbenaca supina..in English Base or flat Veruayne.

    e. Lying in close apposition; with its whole length or surface in contact irrespectively of position. Naut. Of a sail: flat aback or flat aft (see quot. 1815): said also of the vessel.

1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 86 Placing my Instrument flat on th' earth. 1581 J. Maplet Diall Destinie 66 In theyr coursing they [Hares] apply their eares fast and flat to their backes. 1684 R. H. School Recreat. 138 Spreading your Net on the Ground smooth and flat. 1715 Desaguliers Fires Impr. 131 When it is open, it may be flat to the Chimney. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) s.v. Aback, Lay all flat Aback. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants IV. 76 Saucers dark green, lying flat on the leaves. 1815 Falconer's Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Flat aft is the situation of the sails when their surfaces are pressed aft against the mast by the force of the wind. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast vi, We found the vessel hove flat aback. 1885 H. J. Stonor in Law Times LXXX. 119/1 The ladder was standing flat against the side wall.

    f. Paper-making. Packed without folding.

1890 Jacobi Printing xxxi. 249 A ream may be either ‘flat’, ‘folded’, or ‘lapped’.

    g. Of the hand: Extended, not clenched.

1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 345 The child Push'd her flat hand against his face and laugh'd. 1859 ― Enid 1565 The brute Earl..unknightly, with flat hand, However lightly, smote her on the cheek.

    h. Of relatively small curvature or inclination. spec. Of a golf-club: having the head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft; of a swing of the club: not upright, oblique.

1857 H. B. Farnie Golfer's Man. (1947) v. 27 Regarding the lie of a club for effecting distance, whether it should be flat or upright, little can be said..the rule being, the longer the club, the flatter the lie. 1887 Jamieson's Scot. Dict. Suppl., Flat, adj. A term in golfing, applied to a club of which the head is at a very obtuse angle to the shaft. 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Flat sweep, a flat sweep or curve signifies one that is relatively of less curvature than others with which it may be compared. 1909 P. A. Vaile Mod. Golf i. 17 [One who plays an upright swing] will keep longer in the line of the ball's flight to the hole, and in the plane of its flight, than one who stands away from the ball and uses a flat swing. Ibid. iii. 32 A club with a lie which is too flat.

    3. Without curvature or projection of surface. a. Of land, the face of the country: Plain, level; not hilly or undulating.

c 1440 [see 1]. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius iv. 49, A Nacion..inhabiting vpon a flat shore. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. i. 63 Thy..flat Medes thetchd with Stouer, them [Sheepe] to keepe. 1673 Temple Observ. United Prov. Wks. 1731 I. 44 The whole Province of Holland is generally flat. 1748 Relat. Earthq. Lima 2 This Town was built on a low flat Point of Land. 1838 Murray's Hand-bk. N. Germ. 71 High dykes..protect the flat country from inundations. 1859 Jephson Brittany xii. 202 The country became more and more flat.

    b. Of a surface: Without curvature, indentation, or protuberance; plane, level.

1551 T. Wilson Logike (1580) 37 When thei se the ground beaten flat round about. 1559 Cunningham Cosmogr. Glasse 47 As touchyng your opinion, that th' Earth is flat, I will prove it to be rounde. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iv. xxxvi. 159 b, Not any carved images of saints..but on flat pictures painted. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vi. 262 The flat face of the Rocke. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 268 That makes the Moulding flatter, this more circular. 1812–6 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 32 To grind one surface perfectly flat, it is..necessary to grind three at the same time. 1824 R. Stuart Hist. Steam Engine 179 The flat face to which the blocks are ground. 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., Chest, flat. A chest which has lost its rounded front.

    c. Of the face or nose.

c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 259 His face was ful brade & flat. 1560 Bible (Genev.) Lev. xxi. 18 A man..that hath a flat nose. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 158 Downe with the Nose, Downe with it flat, take the Bridge quite away. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 325 Their Faces are oval, their Foreheads flat. 1829 Lytton Devereux ii. iii, A very flat, ill-favoured countenance. 1836 W. Irving Astoria II. 281 Their noses are broad and flat at top.

    † d. flat numbers: those corresponding to plane surfaces, i.e. numbers composed of two factors.

1557 Recorde Whetst. C iij, Superficiall nombers, or Flatte nombers.

    e. flat side (e.g. of a sword): opposed to the edge. Also to turn (a sword) flat.

a 1440 Sir Eglam. 1240 Syr Egyllamowre turnyd hys swerde flatt. 1727 W. Snelgrave Guinea & Slave Trade (1734) 236 Lifted up his broad Sword, and gave me a Blow on the Shoulder with the flat side of it. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. 226 The flat side..is to be turned towards the observer. 1835 Lytton Rienzi i. iii, Touching the smith with the flat side of his sword.

    f. Having little projection from the adjacent surface. Rarely const. to.

1728 Pope Dunc. ii. 43 With pert flat eyes she windowed well its head. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. V. xiv. v. 201 It can now be discovered..by any eyes, however flat to the head.

    g. flat tyre (U.S. tire): (a) a deflated or punctured tyre; also ellipt. as flat; (b) U.S. a dull and spiritless person. Also flat wheel.

1923 Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xvi. 218 I'm bound to say it isn't very often I find my own existence getting a flat tyre. 1925 H. L. Foster Trop. Tramp Tourists xvi. 300 You think you're the berries, don't you? Well, you might have been once, but you're a flat-tire these days! You can't make the grade! 1927 New Republic 26 Jan. 277/2 He's a flat tire. 1929 ‘C. Walt’ Love in Chicago xv. 211 Stopping at the crossroads to see if I had a flat. 1934 J. M. Cain Postman always rings Twice i. 12, I was in the filling station, fixing flats. 1942 ‘N. Shute’ Pied Piper 81 The driver wrestled to jack up the bus and get the flat wheel off.

    h. Of the frequency response of an amplifier or other electronic device: uniform (over a certain range of frequencies); of a device: having such a response; amplifying, attenuating, or reproducing equally signals of all frequencies.

1926 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 281/2 A properly designed system is ‘flat’, i.e., indiscriminatory, over a sufficiently wide auditory band. 1949 Frayne & Wolfe Elem. Sound Recording xxix. 604 With this machine a frequency response flat within 2 db is obtained from 30 to 15,000 cycles. 1958 J. Tall Techn. Magn. Recording vi. 86 A flat amplifier is one that amplifies all frequencies equally. 1970 J. Earl Tuners & Amplifiers ii. 57 Trimmers across the bass and treble tone controls..make it possible to balance them for a ‘flat’ response when the controls are at the centre setting.

    4. transf. a. in Painting. Without appearance of relief or projection. flat tint: one of uniform depth or shade.

1755 Johnson, Flat, without relief, without prominence of the figures. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing ii. 95 Throwing every mass of shadow into a flat tint. Ibid. iii. 153 The pictures..were in their general appearance, flat, insipid, and uninteresting. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 18 The impossibility of spreading a flat tint on the vellum. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. III. 186 Pictures..flat, and deficient in light and shade, or brilliance.

    b. Engraving. Wanting in sharpness; applied to a pull or impression of a plate which has received only the flat impression of the press without the overlay used to develop light and shade.

1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Voc. 44 Flat, an expression used to indicate excessive flatness in an illustration owing to want of light and shade in overlaying. 1888 Flat pull [see sense 15]. 1897 Singer & Strang Etching 175 A ‘flat’ proof of a block as it comes from the photo⁓engraver generally shows itself to be in need of some touching up.

    c. Of paint, lacquer, or varnish: lustreless, dull. (Cf. flat a., etc. C. 12, flat v.² 8 a, flatted ppl. a. 5.)

1896 N.E.D. s.v. flat v.2 8 a, To cover (a surface) with flat, i.e. lustreless, paint. 1935 H. R. Simonds Finishing Metal Products xxv. 263 There may be gloss or flat paint, or an intermediate semigloss frequently known as egg-shell paint. 1940 R. C. Martin Lacquer & Synthetic Enamel Finishes xii. 370 Clear or flat lacquers may then be used to a finish. 1951 H. W. Chatfield Gloss. Terms Paint Trades 115 Flat varnishes, lacquers, enamels, etc. 1953, 1958 [see egg-shell c]. 1971 Sci. Amer. Sept. 224/3 Coat the inside of the box with flat black paint.

    d. Photogr. Wanting in contrast.

1901 G. E. Brown Finishing Negative vii. 66 Increasing contrasts..gives a ‘snap’ to otherwise flat negatives which is often very welcome. 1923 Kodak Mag. Mar. 36 From the negative least developed we shall get a print flat and grey with little difference between high light and shadow. 1953 T. L. J. Bentley Man. Miniat. Camera (ed. 4) viii. 113 A negative may be so flat and deficient in printing density that straightforward printing will not yield an enlargement of acceptable quality.

    5. a. With additional notion: Having a broad level surface and little thickness. Of a foot: Touching the ground with the whole surface; but little arched.

c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 29 Serue hem in almost flatte. 1530 Palsgr. 312/2 Flatte as a thyng is that is brode. 1577–87 Harrison England iii. iii. (1878) iii. 224 Of fishes..I find fiue sorts, the flat, [etc.]. 1597 Gerarde Herbal 58 Flat wheate is..bearded and bordered with very rough and sharpe ailes, wherein consisteth the difference. 1613–39 I. Jones in Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) II. 44 Those great Pilasters in the Angle of the inside of the Temple are too flat. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vi. 247 They weare on their heads flat round Caps. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 49 The Booby is a Water-fowl..her Feet are flat like a Ducks Feet. a 1721 J. Keill Maupertuis' Diss. (1734) 65 These conjectures concerning flat Stars..are rather the stronger. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 303 To collar Flat Ribs of Beef. 1840 Lardner Geom. 34 This ruler consists of a flat piece of wood with a straight edge. 1859–74 Tennyson Vivien 348 May this hard earth cleave..and close again, and nip me flat, If I be such a traitress. 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Eng., Flat File..is either a tapered or a parallel file. 1882 Quain Anat. (ed. 9) I. 8 Tabular or flat bones, like the scapula, ilium, and the bones forming the roof and sides of the skull.

    † b. Of false dice: Broad and thin. Obs.

c 1550 Dice-Play A j b, A bale of flatte synke deuxis..A bale of flat cater trees. 1711 Puckle Club 30 Flats. Note, Dice flatter than they are long, to throw Trays and Quaters.

    c. Of a blade, as opposed to ‘three-edged’.
    d. Phrases: flat as a flawn, flounder, pancake (see those ns.).
    e. Of a vessel: Wide and shallow.

1471 Bury Wills (Camden) 242, I peluem laton voc' a flat basyn. 1492 Ibid. 75 My flatte gylte cuppe. 1533 Will of C. Bedford in Weaver Wells Wills 27 John Bys the yonger a fflat cuppe of sylver. 1552 Huloet, Flatte bole for wine, ecpatala. 1611 Bible Lev. ii. 5 A meate offering baken in a panne [marg. on a flat plate].

    II. Senses of figurative origin.
    6. a. Unrelieved by conditions or qualifications; absolute, downright, unqualified, plain; peremptory. Now chiefly of a denial, contradiction, etc., and in Shaksperian phrases, flat blasphemy, flat burglary.

1551 T. Wilson Logike (1567) 61 a, The aunswerer must still vse flatte deniyng. 1577 J. Northbrooke Dicing (1843) 121 Whosoeuer taketh and keepeth the mony of another..sheweth himself a flat theefe. 1586 B. Young Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iv. 183 If I would tel you a flat lie, I wold say no. 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) II. 248 Why, Sir, to be flat with you, you liue by your legges. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. ii. 131 That in the Captaine's but a chollericke word, Which in the souldier is flat blasphemie. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. King & No King iv. iii, This is my flat opinion, which I'll die in. 1614 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 864 Who knowes not, that S. Homer, and S. Virgil are flat for it? 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. i. (1851) 23 His Son Constantius prov'd a flat Arian. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T. 1 Cor. vii. 12, 13, I bring you not this as a flat command of Christ, but as my best Advice. 1699 Bentley Phal. 304 A piece of flat Nonsense. 1713 Swift Apollo outwitted vii, She gave no flat denial. 1788 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 551 In flat contradiction to their Arret of December last. 1839 Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 97 He claimed to be put in possession..but met with a flat refusal. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 163 A flat impostor. 1891 R. Kipling Plain Tales from Hills 212 It's flat, flagrant disobedience!

    b. In the conclusive expression, that's flat (a) formerly = that's the absolute, undeniable truth; (b) a defiant expression of one's final resolve or determination.

1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iii. i. 102 The Boy hath seld him a bargaine, a Goose, that's flat 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, iv. ii. 43. 1665 Surv. Aff. Netherl. 120 Its the greatest Bogg of Europe..that's flat. 1716 Addison Drummer i. i, I'll give Madam warning, that's flat. 1852 Smedley L. Arundel i. 15 ‘I won't, then, that's flat’, exclaimed Rachel.

    c. Of a calm: Complete, ‘dead’.

1651 Howell Venice 119 The wind..became..a flat calm. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. 415 It fell flat calm. 1880 A. Brassey Sunshine & Storm 34 Half an hour later it was a flat calm.

    d. Impecunious, penniless. U.S. slang. (Cf. flat broke s.v. flat adv. 2.)

1833 Sk. & Eccentr. D. Crockett (1834) 60 Retiring to bed, comfortably situated, he awoke next morning flat without a dollar. 1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Sept. 698/2 Satisfying his desires freely when he can, starving when he is ‘flat’.

    e. to leave (a person) flat, to ‘drop’ suddenly and completely; to go away from.

1902 G. V. Hobart It's up to You ii. 37 Then they both chuckled and left me flat. 1919 in Saucy Stories Aug. 83/2 She got up enough spunk to leave him flat on Broadway. Lost him in the crowd... Refused to see him when he showed up. 1930 Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves! iii. 85 He buzzed off, leaving me flat. 1942 T. Rattigan Flare Path i. i. 121 You meant my Johnny's going to leave me flat the minute the war's over.

    7. Wanting in points of attraction and interest; prosaic, dull, uninteresting, lifeless, monotonous, insipid. Sometimes with allusion to sense 10. a. of composition, discourse, a joke, etc. Also of a person with reference to his composition, conversation, etc.

1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 20 Mi over flat and homeli kind of writing. 1656 Bp. Hall Occas. Med. (1851) 63 They have proved..poor and flat in all other subjects. 1662 Pepys Diary 11 May, A dull, flat Presbiter preached. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 124 ¶2 We should complain of many flat Expressions. 1712 W. Rogers Voy. Introd. 16 Such strange Stories, as make the Voyages of those who come after..to look flat and insipid. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vii. xxx, The longest story of the flattest proser that ever droned. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. x. (1869) 204 The flattest thing of yours they can find. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 31 A rather flat treatment of trite themes. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xiii. (1878) 254 I am rather a flat teller of stories. 1889 County x. in Cornhill Mag. Mar., He is always appreciative of the flattest joke.

    b. of one's circumstances, surroundings, etc.

1602 Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 133 How weary, stale, flat, and vnprofitable Seemes to me all the vses of this world. 1706 Atterbury Funeral Serm. 8 All Earthly Satisfactions must needs..grow flat and unsavory. 1798 Coleridge Fears in Solitude 67 How flat and wearisome they feel their trade. 1848 Mrs. Gaskell Mary Barton xvii, It seems so flat to be left behind. 1884 Queen Victoria More Leaves 25 It seemed to strike me much less than when I first saw it, as all is flat now.

    c. to fall flat (said of a composition, discourse, etc.): to prove unattractive, uninteresting, or ineffective; to fail in exciting applause or approval.

1841 Macaulay W. Hastings (1880) 654 The best written defence must have fallen flat. 1860 Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 125 All my news falls flat. 1885 C. L. Pirkis Lady Lovelace II. xxv. 80 The haranguing..fell as flat as the reasoning.

    8. Deficient in sense or mental vigour; stupid, dull, slow-witted.

1599 Shakes. Hen. V, Prol. 9 Pardon, Gentles all: The flat vnraysed Spirits, that hath dar'd..to bring forth So great an Obiect. 1601 Sir J. Ogle Parlie at Ostend in Sir F. Vere Comm. 158 Nor do I believe that..any of you judge me so flat, or so stupid. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 132 No dull Idolater was ere so flat In Things of deep and solid Weight. 1878 Seeley Stein I. 312, I look for nothing from empty, slow, flat people.

    9. a. Wanting in energy and spirit; lifeless, dull. Also, out of spirits, low, dejected, depressed.

1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. vii. 31 You must not thinke That we are made of stuffe, so flat, and dull, That, [etc.]. 1642 Dk. Newcastle Let. in Life (1886) 330 The town will not admit of me..so I am very flat and out of countenance here. c 1680 Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 37 Lest he should grow flat in his devotions. 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 324 Her spirits were dull and flat. 1805 Lamb Lett. (1888) I. 213, I am now calm, but sadly taken down and flat. 1844 Alb. Smith Adv. Mr. Ledbury xxiii. (1886) 71 The audience..not witnessing any situation half so comic as the one they had just seen, were proportionately flat.

    b. Of trade, etc.: Depressed, dull, inactive.

1831 Lincoln Herald 30 Dec. 1 The trade for barley is exceedingly flat. 1894 Times (weekly ed.) 9 Feb. 123/2 Tallow trade, flat, but prices unchanged. 1894 Daily News 1 June 3/5 A flat market for maize.

    c. Of an electric battery: run down, (fully) discharged.

1951 Autocar 9 Nov. 1445/2 After five hundred miles of touring I found myself with a completely flat battery. 1961 Which? Apr. 89/1 If this discharging process goes on long enough, the battery will be left flat. 1969 N. Freeling Tsing-Boum ii. 17 The car battery is flat and I've got to charge it. 1978 B. Francis AA Car Duffer's Guide 42/1 A bloke rings up saying he had a flat battery.

    10. Of drink, etc.: That has lost its flavour or sharpness; dead, insipid, stale.

1607 Heywood Woman kilde Epil., The wine..drunk too flat. 1626 Bacon Sylva §367 Spirit of Wine burned..tasteth nothing so hot in the Mouth..but flat and dead. 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 49 Fruit..to the Tongue inelegant and flat. 1772 Priestley in Phil. Trans. LXII. 154 When..cyder is become flat or dead. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. 20 Tankards sending forth a scent of flat ale.

    11. a. Of sound, a resonant instrument, a voice: Not clear and sharp; dead, dull. Also in Combs., as flat-sounding, flat-vowelled.

1626 Bacon Sylva §154 If..you stop the Holes of a Hawkes Bell, it will make no Ring, but a flat noise, or Rattle. a 1663 Sanderson in Treas. Dav. Ps. cl. 5 The cymbal will be flat, it will have no life or spirit in it. 1718 Prior Pleasure 501 Too flat I thought this voice, and that too shrill. 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic ix. (1833) 217 The..variety of sounds..produced by the report of his fowling-piece. Sometimes they are flat and prolonged, at other times short and sharp. 1920 ‘K. Mansfield’ Lett. (1928) II. 3 His flat-sounding voice. 1936 ‘M. Franklin’ All that Swagger i. 10 The haw-haw, flat-vowelled Public School English.

    b. Music. Of a note or singer: Relatively low in pitch; below the regular or true pitch. B, D, E, etc. flat: a semitone lower than B, D, E, etc. Of an interval or scale: = minor.

1591 Shakes. Two Gent. i. ii. 93 Now you are too flat; And marre the concord, with too harsh a descant. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 3, ♭..signifying the halfe note and flatt singing. 1609 Douland Ornith. Microl. 15 To sing fa in a flat Scale. 1613 Drummond of Hawthornden Poems 144 Like Arions Harpe Now delicately flat, now sweetly sharp. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. ii. 95 A flat Third lower, is C fa ut. 1678 Phillips s.v. Cliff, The B-Cliff..being only to shew when Notes are to be sung flat. 1691 Ray Creation 204 Cartilages and Muscles to contract or dilate it [the windpipe] as we would have our Voice Flat or Sharp. 1773 Barrington in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 270 The flat third is plaintive. 1874 Helps Soc. Press. iii. 46 For the sixth time he hears C flat instead of C sharp played. 1875 Ouseley Harmony v. 67 All the fifths in tuning keyed instruments, are tuned a little flatter than perfection.

    c. quasi-adv.

Mod. She has a tendency to sing flat.

    12. Gram. † a. Of an accent, a syllable: Unstressed.

1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xiii. (Arb.) 135 [Re] being the first sillable, passing obscurely away with a flat accent is short. 1612 Brinsley Pos. Parts (1669) 94 Every Noun Substantive Commune increasing flat or short in the Genitive case, is the Masculine Gender. What mean you by this, to increase flat? A. To have the last syllable but one pressed down flat in the pronouncing.

    b. Phonetics. Of a consonant: Voiced, i.e. uttered with vibration of the vocal chords, e.g. b, d, v, etc., as opposed to breath, e.g. p, t, f, etc. Of a vowel: (see quot. 1934³). Also, of a sound: characterized by the downward shift of higher frequencies.

1874 R. Morris Hist. Eng. Gram. §54 B and d, &c. are said to be soft or flat, while p and t, &c. are called hard or sharp consonants. 1901 H. Sweet in Maître Phonétique 145, if wij dis{p}tiŋgwiʃ bi{p}twijn ‘mikst’ pə{p}ziʃən ən ‘flæt’ ʃeip əv ðə tʌŋ, wij ʃəd nætʃərəli kɔːl ðə θrij njuw siəriz bæk-flæt bæk-mikst frʌnt-mikst. 1934 H. C. Wyld in S.P.E. Tract xxxix. 607 Another long vowel [{revvmac}] (low-flat-tense). Ibid. 608 This vowel..is the mid-flat-tense. Ibid. 609 The tongue may be so used that neither back nor front predominates, but the whole tongue, which lies evenly in the mouth, is raised or lowered. Vowels so formed are called ‘mixed’ by Sweet, but I owe to him also the term ‘flat’ which I prefer as more descriptive. The vowel [{revvmac}] in bird is low-flat. 1952 R. Jakobson et al. Prelim. Speech Analysis 31 Flat vs. Plain...Flattening manifests itself by a downward shift of a set of formants.

    c. Gram. Not distinguished by a characteristic ending, as an adverb which has the same form as an adjective or substantive, or a substantive used as an adjective.
    Flat adverbs of modern English often go back to an Old English form ending in -e.

1871 J. Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue 361 The Flat Adverb is simply a substantive or an adjective placed in an adverbial position. 1901 Greenough & Kittredge Words (1902) 199 Not all of our ‘flat adverbs’ actually go back to such -ë forms. 1965 English Studies XLVI. 356 The ‘flat-adverbs’ (like e.g. fast).

    13. a. Stock-exchange (U.S.) Stock is said to be borrowed flat, when the lender allows no interest on the money he takes as security for it (Cent. and Standard Dicts.).

1841 N.Y. Standard Jan. (Th.), Flat, without interest, in brokers' slang. 1870 Congress. Globe 25 Jan. 733/2 [Certificates] have been sold ‘flat’..that is to say, without taking the interest into account. 1870 J. K. Medbery Men & Myst. Wall St. 61 Stock can almost always be obtained by borrowers, either flat, i.e. with no interest on either side, or with interest at market rates for the money advanced. 1885 Harper's Mag. Nov. 843/2 To lend ‘flat’ means without interest.

    b. Comm. Unvarying, fixed, uniform; of a standard amount; not varying with changed conditions; without excess or diminution for particular cases. Also quasi-adv.

1898 Engineering Mag. XVI. 38 Three costs are kept,—the flat cost (including labor and material only), the factory cost (factory expense added to flat cost), and total cost (including all expenses of every kind). 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 163/2 The statistics as to the street railway earnings in America are based upon the universal practice there of charging a ‘flat’ 5 cent fare for the whole trip. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 30 July 10/2 The Tube Railway, on which there was what was known as a ‘flat fare’—that was, a fare of twopence for the whole way. 1907 N.Y. Even. Post (semi-weekly ed.) 11 Feb. 4 A company..will take in exactly as much money if the whole lot pay fare at two cents flat. 1908 Daily Chron. 21 Feb. 2/6 They had found..that the ‘flat’ rate system—the fixed annual rate—was unsound. 1920 Westm. Gaz. 1 Apr. 4/2 There..ought not to be any flat rate for all classes of horse-drawn vehicles. 1928 Britain's Industr. Future (Liberal Ind. Inq.) iii. xvi. 193 The majority of workers are paid at flat time-rates. 1950 T. H. Marshall Citizenship & Social Class 55 Flat-rate benefits do not reduce the gaps between different incomes. 1958 Ann. Reg. 1957 92 Labour offered a flat-rate reduction of {pstlg}100 to every taxpayer. 1963 Times 24 May p. vii/3 The ‘sixpenny tube’, or to give it its correct name—the flat fare—if adopted by London Transport, would lead straight to bankruptcy.

    14. Comb. a. In parasynthetic adjs., as flat-backed, flat-billed, flat-breasted, flat-browed, flat-capped, flat-chested, flat coated (of animals), flat-crowned, flat-cut, flat-decked, flat-edged, flat-ended, flat-faced, flat-floored, flat-handled, flat-heeled, flat-hoofed, flat-leaved, flat-mouthed, flat-pearled, flat-pointed, flat-ribbed, flat-roofed, flat-soled, flat-stemmed, flat-surfaced, flat-toothed, flat-topped, flat-visaged.

1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. ix. 185/1 *Flat Backed, when it [Grey-Hound] is even between the neck, and spaces.

1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xix. 154 *Flat-bild birds. 1688 J. Clayton in Phil. Trans. XVII. 990 All Flat-bill'd Birds that groped for their Meat.

1667 N. Fairfax ibid. II. 548 This Woman was as *flat-breasted as a Man.

1838 Dickens O. Twist viii, A snub-nosed, *flat-browed..boy.

1947 J. Mulgan Report on Experience 18 Tenement houses crowded with pale, *flat-capped working men. 1961 H. E. Bates Now sleeps Crimson Petal 25 A muscular flat-capped skittles player who drove a brewers' dray.

1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. Wks. 1806 VI. 63 She is..awkward, *flat-chested, and stooping. 1929 Flat-chested [see chemicalize v.]. 1939 M. Dickens One Pair of Hands vi. 97 It sounds so governessy and flat-chested.

1872 ‘Stonehenge’ Dogs Brit. Isl. (ed. 2) 89 The *flat-coated or short-coated small St. John's or Labrador breed [of retriever]. 1902 C. J. Cornish Naturalist on Thames 109 Our sheep..their wild ancestors, the active and flat-coated animals which still feed on the stony mountain-tops. 1948 C. L. B. Hubbard Dogs in Brit. 227 Another of the lesser-known varieties is the Flat-coated Retriever.

1664 Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 8 For a new hat *flat-croun'd 7s. 6d.

1922 Joyce Ulysses 178 A *flatcut suit of herringbone tweed.

1884 J. Colborne Hicks Pasha 97 A *flat-decked vessel.

1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo xiv. 311 They were walking home in a whirl of the coldest, most *flat-edged wind they had ever known.

1859 Handbk. Turning 97 A fine *flat-ended tool.

1859 Helps Friends in C. Ser. ii. II. viii. 143 The Sea..a melancholy *flat-faced thing.

1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 304 *Flat-floored boats.

1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1059/4 *Flat-handled Silver Spoons.

1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 267 Shoes *flat-heeled. 1890 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 183 The hand of every honest man flat-heeled across your mouth.

1697 Lond. Gaz. No. 3301/4 A..punch Horse..*flat Hoofed.

1926 D. H. Lawrence Sun i. 5 The *flat-leaved cactus called prickly pear.

? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1088 *Fflatt mowthede as a fluke.

1924 E. Sitwell Sleeping Beauty vi. 28 Upon the *flat-pearled and fantastic shore.

1710 J. Harris Lex. Techn. II, *Flat-pointed Nails.

1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1908/4 One Dark brown Gelding..a little *flat Ribb'd. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. ix. 185/2 Flat Ribbed, is when the both side Ribbs [of a Grey-Hound] cling and are near to gather.

1598 Hakluyt Voy. III. 391 Their houses are *flat-rooffed. 1847 Disraeli Tancred iv. xii, Flat-roofed villages nestle amid groves of mulberry trees.

1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 377 Their shooes are low and *flat-soal'd. 1849 James Woodman ix, The..tread of the abbess in her flat-soled sandal.

1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. VI. 89 *Flat-stemmed Meadow grass.

1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 193 Place a *flat-surfaced bottle empty on its side.

1766 Pennant Zool. (1769) III. 9 The fossil tooth of..some *flat-toothed fish.

1862 Ansted Channel Isl. i. ii. (ed. 2) 32 The southern islet is..*flat-topped.

1774 Curtis in Phil. Trans. LXIV. 383 They are *flat-visaged.

    b. With pr. pple. forming adj., as flat-lying.

1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 284 Low flat-lying land. 1949 E. Pound Pisan Cantos lxxiv. 24 A nice little town in the Tyrol in a wide flat-lying valley. 1965 G. J. Williams Econ. Geol. N.Z. v. 55/2 (caption) Flat-lying lodes of the Golden Point group.

    c. With adjs., as flat-icy, flat-sleek.

1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo xiv. 308 So, in the *flat-icy wind..they crouched.

1922 E. Sitwell Fa{cced}ade 11 And finer Their black hair seemed (*flat-sleek to see) Than the leaves of the springing Bohea.

    15. Special comb., as flat-arch (see 1 b); flat-back, (a) (see quot. 1888); (b) slang, a bed bug (Farmer); (c) a book whose back is flat when the book is closed; (d) various other technical senses (see quots.); † flat-bean, a name for some species of Lupinus; flat bed [bed n. 11], a bed or frame with a horizontal surface; spec. (freq. attrib. or as adj.): (a) a printing machine with a flat printing surface; (b) a trailer with no top or sides; (c) on a sewing machine, the flat surface on which the fabric rests; flat-bedded a. (Geol.), having a naturally plane cleavage; flat-bill, a name for certain birds having broad, flat bills, e.g. a bird of the genus Platyrhynchus; flat-body (Entom.), the name of a moth; flat bug, any of the family Aradidæ of bugs, which are very flat and live chiefly under the bark of trees; flat candle, a candle used in a flat-candlestick; flat candlestick, one with a broad stand and short stem; a bedroom-candlestick; flat-car (U.S.), ‘a railroad-car consisting of a platform without sides or top; a platform-car’ (Cent. Dict.); flat chasing (see quot. 1960); also flat-chased ppl. a. [chased ppl. a.²]; flat chisel, a smoothing chisel; flat-coil, a pond-snail of the genus Planorbis, having its shell coiled in a plane; so flat-coiled ppl. a.; flat-compounded a., Electr. Engin. [compound v. 2 f] (see quot. 1940 ); flat-crown (Arch.) (a) = corona 4; (b) a popular name for two trees, Albizzia gummifera and A. adianthifolia, both found in southern Africa; flat-earth a., of or pertaining to the theory that the earth is flat; so flat-earther, flat-earth-man; flat-feet (see quot.); flat-fell seam (see quot. 1964); flat field Photogr. (see quots. 1904 and 1918); flat film Photogr., film on a card or sheet (opp. roll film); also ellipt. as flat; flat finish (see quot. 1940); flat-four a., of a four-cylinder engine in which two cylinders are placed on each side of the crankshaft and all the cylinders are parallel to the ground; flat-hammer, ‘the hammer first used by the gold-beater in swaging out a pile of quartiers or pieces of gold ribbon’ (Knight); † flat-house, ? a sheriff's office, a roofed shed for impounded animals; flat impression (Printing), see flat-pull; flat joint, (a) Building (see quot. 1904); (b) U.S. slang (see quot. 1914); flat-knitting, a knitting process in which the needles on which the yarn is spun are set in a straight line; so flat-knit a., of a fabric made by flat-knitting; † flat-lap, a term describing a particular posture of the leaves of a plant (see quot.); flat-lead, sheet lead; flat-minded a. (see quot. 1928); flat move (slang: see quot.); flat nail (see quot.); flat-orchil, a kind of lichen, Roccella fusiformis, used as a dye (Ogilvie 18..); flat pea: see pea¹ 3; † flat-piece, a shallow drinking-cup; flat pliers, pliers having the holding part or jaws flat; flat pointing Building (see quot. 1940); hence flat-joint pointing; flat-pressing (see quot.); flat pull Printing (see quot.); flat race, a race over clear and level ground, as opposed to hurdle-racing or steeple-chasing; whence flat-racer, flat-racing; flat-rail, ‘a railroad rail consisting of a simple flat bar spiked to a longitudinal sleeper’ (Knight); flat-ring a., denoting an armature taking the form of a flat ring; flat rod (see quot.); flat-rolled ppl. a., formed by rolling between smooth cylindrical rollers; flat-roof v. trans., to cover with a flat roof; flat rope (see quots.); flat-sawn a. (see quot. 1957); flat screen, (a) a television screen that is flat rather than gently curved; usu. attrib. with hyphen; (b) a computer display that is thin in relation to its two visible dimensions; flat seam Naut. (see quot.); flat-sheets pl. (a) Mining (see quots.); (b) Geol. and Mining, ‘thin beds, flat veins, or blanket veins or deposits of some mineral usually different from the adjacent layers; often contact-deposits’ (Standard Dict.); flat silver N. Amer., knives, forks, spoons, and other eating or serving utensils made of or plated with silver (Webster 1961); flat-skein work Basket-making (see quot. 1943 and skein n.² 1); flat slab Building, a concrete slab reinforced in two or more directions to enable it to be supported by columns, etc., without the use of beams or girders; also attrib., as flat-slab construction; flat sour, fermentation of tinned products by the action of micro-organisms which produce acid but not gas, and so do not cause distension of the tin; also (with hyphen) attrib.; flat space, Euclidean space; flat spin Aeronaut., a spin in which an aircraft descends in tight circles while not departing greatly from a horizontal attitude; fig., a frenzy of agitation, a worried confusion of mind; flat spot (see quot. 1940); flat-square a., of a file: one whose section is a rectangle; flat-tail mullet, an Australian fish (Liza argentea); also flat-tailed mullet; flat-tool, (a) ‘a turning chisel which cuts on both sides and on the end, which is square’ (Knight); (b) an elongated conical tool used in seal-engraving for bringing ribbons or monograms to a flat surface (Cent. Dict.); flat-top, (a) U.S., a name for Vernonia noveboracensis; (b) U.S. slang, an aircraft-carrier; also baby flat-top, a smaller (cargo, etc.) vessel converted into a carrier; (c) used attrib. of a style of hairdressing; flat tuning Radio [tuning vbl. n.] (see quot. 1940); flat turn Aeronaut. (see quot. 1935); flat-ware, (a) ‘plates, dishes, saucers and the like, collectively, as distinguished from hollow-ware’ (Cent. Dict.); (b) (esp. U.S.) domestic cutlery; flat water local, patches of oily water in the sea, indicating the presence of pilchards; flat work, (a) Mining (see quot. 1851); (b) a piece of material of any kind wrought into a flat shape; (c) Laundry (see quot. 1928); flat-worm (Zool.), an animal of the class Platyhelmintha. Also flat-boat, -bottom, -cap, -fish, -foot, head, etc.

1888 Addy Sheffield Gloss., *Flat-back, a common knife with its back filed down after it is put together. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 226/1 Flat backs, whole bound or half bound books whose backs have the leather firmly glued or pasted to them. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 339/1 Flat-back (Moulding), a pattern having a flat upper surface at the joint of the mould, so lying wholly within the drag or bottom half. 1957 Mankowitz & Haggar Encycl. Eng. Pott. & Porc. 53/1 Intended for display on the mantelpiece; often of a ‘flat-back’ type, modelled and decorated on one side only. 1963 C. R. Cowell et al. Inlays, Crowns & Bridges xii. 140 ‘Steele's’ flatbacks—these are useful for patients with close bites.

1597 Gerarde Herbal 1042 Of the *flat Beane called Lupine. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden ccxii. 333 Some call them [Lupines] Flat-beans.

1875 J. Southward Dict. Typogr. (ed. 2) 48 Hoe's Machines... The forme of type is locked⁓up in the bed by means of screws, by which the type is held as securely as in the ordinary manner upon a *flat bed. 1886–7 Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers LXXXIX. 247 In the second class is the single-cylinder machine—a cylinder impressing a forme of type on a flat bed, and printing one side only. 1892 J. Southward Princ. & Progr. Printg. Machin. 108 The machine printed 3,145 sheets in the hour—a rate that is altogether unprecedented for a flat bed cylinder machine. 1906 F. H. Hitchcock Building a Book 121 In the latter part of 1812, the first flat-bed cylinder press was erected by them [sc. Koenig and Bauer] in Bensley's office. 1927 E. St. John Pract. Hints Presswk. p. xvi, For the general run of commercial work the two-revolution flat-bed cylinder press is preferred. 1932 C. C. Knights Printing 69 As the name implies the flat-bed machine has a flat surface or bed upon which the material to be printed is laid. 1959 Times 14 Jan. 12/4 The future will see photocomposition allied to letterpress printing, both flatbed and rotary, on an increasing scale. 1960 M. Spark Ballad of Peckham Rye iv. 67 They are advertising for ten twin-needle flat-bed machinists. 1961 Amer. Speech XXXVI. 272 Flat bed, a truck, semitrailer, or trailer with no sides or top. 1970 Which? Aug. 237/2 All the [sewing] machines we tested this time had a flat bed. 1971 P. Driscoll White Lie Assignment x. 82 Two long flatbed trailers were parked with canvas-covered cylinders on them.

1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §221 No quarries affording *flat bedded stones having occurred.

1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 17 The *flat-bill uttered his plaintive wail.

1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 443 Tinea applana, the common *Flat-body. 1860 J. Curtis Farm Insects 411 The..Flat-body Moth.

1895 J. H. & A. B. Comstock Man. Study of Insects xiv. 139 The *flat-bugs..are the flattest of all bugs, the body appearing as if it had been stepped upon. 1921 Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc. XLVII. 1 Every entomologist is in a general way familiar with the ‘flatbugs’ of the Hemipterous genus Aradus, which are often met with beneath the dead bark of trees, but no systematic treatment of the numerous..species has ever been attempted. 1923 W. E. Britton Guide Insects Connecticut iv. 11 It is believed the Aradidæ or ‘flat bugs’, are predatory on insects and other small animals. 1959 Southwood & Leston Land & Water Bugs ii. 13 A. cinnamomeus differs from other flatbugs whose habits are known in not being a fungus feeder, for it lives on pine sap.

1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz, Scenes xv. (1892) 125 The flaring *flat candle with the long snuff.

1493 Bury Wills (1850) 81 Another *flatt candelstyke of laton. 1859 Dickens Haunted Ho. v. 22 A bedroom candlestick and candle, or a flat candlestick and candle—put it which way you like.

1881 Chicago Times 18 June, Demolishing a couple of *flat-cars.

1956 G. Taylor Silver iv. 73 *Flat-chased or embossed in such low relief as to be almost indistinguishable from flat-chasing. 1960 H. Hayward Antique Coll. 119/1 *Flat chasing, surface decoration in low relief on precious metal, produced by hammering with small blunt tools. The characteristic feature of the process is that no metal is removed.

1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. viii. 359/1 The third is termed a Chissel, or a *Flat Chissel. 1881 Young Every man his own Mechanic §568 The flat chisel..is used for smoothing the work, or taking off the remaining wood that was left by the gouge.

1901 E. Step Shell Life xvii. 319 The next section of these Pond-snails comprises the *Flat-coils (Planorbis), made familiar by the typical species—the Ram's-horn or Trumpet-snail. 1926 A. E. Ellis Brit. Snails ii. 118 The snails of this family [sc. Planorbidæ] are popularly called Ram's-horns, Flat-coils, or Trumpet Snails.

1901 E. Step Shell Life xiii. 234 The Skenea planorbis, whose reddish or tawny shell at first sight looks like one of the small fresh-water *Flat-coiled Shells (Planorbis), whence its specific name.

1915 R. Lankester Divers. Nat. xxxiv. 346 The flat-coiled pond-snail, Planorbis.

1909 Webster I. 828/1 *Flat-compounded. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 339/1 Flat-compounded, said of a compound-wound generator the series winding of which has been so designed that the voltage remains constant at all loads between no-load and full-load.

1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I. s.v. Corona, The *Flat-Crown, is..a particular Member in the Dorick Gate..it hath six times more Breadth than Projecture. 1868 J. Chapman Trav. Int. S. Afr. II. 451 The umbrella-like Flat-crown, common in the Berea-bush near D'Urban. 1887 C. A. Moloney Sk. Forestry W. Afr. 346 Flatcrown of Natal. 1897 ‘Mark Twain’ More Tramps Abroad lxviii, The ‘flat-crown’ (should be flat-roof)—half a dozen naked branches, full of elbows, slant upward like artificial supports, and fling a roof of delicate foliage out in a horizontal platform as flat as a floor. 1950 Cape Argus 18 Mar. (Mag. Section) 7/7 The Cape ebony, white stinkwood, flatcrown, essenhout and umzimbiti, trees that yield beautiful timber for furniture-making, grow in profusion in every kloof.

1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 3/2 This *Flat-Earth Society. 1909 Ibid. 21 Sept. 4/1 A lifelong upholder of the flat-earth theory. 1922 A. S. Eddington Theory of Relativity 26 Those who adhered to the flat-earth theory must hold that the flat map gives the true size of Greenland.

1934 Punch 21 Nov. 562/1 Without being a bigoted *flat-earther, he [sc. Mercator] perceived the nuisance..of fiddling about with globes..in order to discover the South Seas. 1963 Times 11 May 6/2 His treatment of appoggiaturas was that of a Flat Earther with spasmodic doubts.

1908 G. B. Shaw Fabian Essays p. xii, Fewer votes than one would have thought possible for any human candidate, were he even a *flat-earth-man. 1951 Auden Nones (1952) 47 Lovers of small numbers go benignly potty,..are Millerites, Baconians, Flat-Earth-Men.

1873 Slang Dict., *Flat-feet, the battalion companies in the Foot Guards.

1939 M. B. Picken Lang. Fashion 58/2 *Flat fell seam, flat, sturdy seam. 1964 McCall's Sewing ii. 28/2 Flat-fell, seam used on shirts, slacks and other tailored garments in which one seam is trimmed and the other stitched over it. Gives a flat, finished seam on both sides of the garment.

1841 R. Hunt Pop. Treat. Art of Photogr. 80 A photographic camera should possess, according to Sir John Herschel, ‘the three qualities of a *flat field, a sharp focus,..and a perfect achromaticity’. 1878 W. Abney Treat. Photogr. 205 Since the manufacture of non-distorting doublets giving a fairly flat field has been perfected. 1893 Jrnl. Soc. Arts XLI. 384/2 The efforts of opticians..are being continually put forth in the direction of the attainment of..as near approach as possible to a ‘flat field’. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 226/1 A lens is said to give a flat field when the image of a distant object is equally in focus, whatever part of the screen it occupies. 1918 Photo-Miniature Mar. 20 Flat field, applied to a lens which, when photographing a flat subject, e.g., a painting, gives equal definition in all parts of the plate. 1966 LaCour & Lathrop Photo Technol. x. 115/1 Enlarging lenses are designed to produce an extremely flat field.

1950 Rev. Documentation XVII. 134 (title) The Microcopy on *flat film as an aid in documentation. 1958 Engineering 31 Jan. 155/1 The two basic types—roll-film and ‘flats’, the latter including micro-cards and micro-sheet (or micro-fiches).

1913 Sat. Evening Post 12 Apr. 43 (Advt.), The beautiful, modern *flat finish for interior walls and ceilings. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 339/1 Flat finish, a non-glossy finish, showing no brilliancy of surface.

1959 ‘Motor’ Man. (ed. 36) 38 They [sc. each pair of cylinders] are at 180 degrees and the cylinders are parallel with the ground. This is known as the *flat-four type. 1961 New Scientist 19 Jan. 162/2 The main features of the Ferguson ‘flat four’ design are aimed at obtaining the utmost rigidity of the crankcase.

1698 S. Sewall Diary 9 Mar. (1878) I. 472 Our Horses are broke out of themselves, or else are taken out of the stable..Sent presently to their *flat-house, but hear nothing of them. 1706 Ibid. 25 Mar. (1879) II. 157 Surpris'd the Sheriff and his Men at the Flat-house.

1890 Jacobi Printing xxi. 185 Pull three or four good sound *flat impressions, with not too much ink.

1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 555 In one kind of pointing, the courses are simply marked with the end of a trowel, called *flat-joint pointing. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 126/1 Flat joint, a mortar joint flush with the face of the wall. 1914 Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 34 Flat joint. Current amongst open-air sure-thing men who operate at circus gatherings, fairs, carnivals, any gaming establishment... The ‘Shells’; ‘three card monte’; the ‘eight die case’..are all grafting flat joints. The term is derived from the essentiality in all of these crooked devices of a counter or other flat area across or upon which the swindle may be conducted. 1963 Mencken Amer. Lang. xi. 731 Carnival workers, and especially strong-joint or flat-joint operators, have a more or less secret argot.

1963 A. J. Hall Textile Sci. iii. 149 Large amounts of *flat-knit fabric are produced with straight bar knitting machines. 1969 Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 19 Seamless stretch tights knit of nylon... Flat knit heels and toes.

1939 M. B. Picken Lang. Fashion 58/2 *Flat knitting, type of knitting done in flat form.

1671 Grew Anat. Plants i. iv. §16 Where the Leaves are not so thick set, as to stand in the Bow-Lap, there we have the Plicature, or the *Flat-Lap.

1885 G. Meredith Diana of Crossways I. i. 15 One is not astonished at her appearing an ‘actress’ to the *flat-minded. 1928 Funk's Stand. Dict. I. 937/3 Flat-minded, lacking mental power, imagination, or feeling; devoid of prominent characteristics.

1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., Any attempt or project that miscarries, or any act of folly or mismanagement in human affairs is said to be a *flat move.

c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 135 *Flat nails are small sharp-pointed nails, with flat thin heads.

1422–3 Abingdon Acc. (Camden) 92 Item j. *flatpece argenti. 1530 Palsgr. 220/2 Flatte pece, tasse. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings vii. 50 Flat peces, charges, basens.

1881 Young Every man his own Mechanic §275 A pair of *flat pliers, of the ordinary kind.

1891–3 Dict. Techn. & Trade Terms of Arch. Design 110/1 What is called ‘*flat pointing’ is done by marking the joints of the brickwork with a flat trowel. 1900 Eng. Dial. Dict. II. 386/1 Kentish. In flat-pointing the mortar is smeared up against, and on to, the edges of each brick. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 339/2 Flat pointing, the method of pointing, used for uncovered internal wall surfaces, in which the stopping is formed into a smooth flat joint in the plane of the wall.

1881 Porcelain Wks. Worcester 21 The manufacture of plates and dishes is called *Flat Pressing.

1888 Jacobi Printers' Voc., *Flat pull (or impression), a simple proof without under or overlaying.

1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xv, Sporting Snobs..who..rode *flat races.

1886 Earl of Suffolk, etc. Racing (Badm. Libr.) i. 37 A few *flat-racers have come over [from Ireland] to us.

Ibid., Steeple-chasing ii. 289 As a rule, *flat-racing is a bad preparation for the jumper. 1890 Daily News 17 Feb. 3/5 When the flat-racing season begins.

1884 S. P. Thompson Dyn.-Electr. Mach. iii. 29 The *flat-ring armature may be said to present a distinct type from those in which the ring tends to the cylindrical form. 1893 Hawkins & Wallis Dynamo 122 A second magnet..can be presented to the other face of the flat-ring core. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 577/2 The discoidal or flat-ring method.

1860 Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 5) II. 226 *Flat rods in mining, a series of rods for communicating motion from the engine, horizontally, to the pumps or other machinery in a distant shaft.

1935 H. L. Campbell Working of Steel iii. 29 Steel is supplied in the form of strips, sheets, plates, and bars. The following definitions apply to these classes of *flat-rolled steel. 1962 Times 8 Feb. 3/1 Stainless flat-rolled products.

1717 Tabor in Phil. Trans. XXX. 562 The Græcians us'd to cover or *Flat-roof their Houses with these [tessellated] Pavements.

1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 878/2 Some *flat ropes, for mining-shafts, are made by sewing together a number of ropes, making a wide, flat band.

1882 W. D. Hay Brighter Britain I. v. 120 Rough split sections of the great logs..fixed in the ground..so as to bring their *flat-sawn tops upon a uniform level. 1957 N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Mar. 52/1 Flat sawn, timber cut tangentially to the annual rings and giving flat grain.

1970 New Scientist 4 June 474/1 The development of *flat-screen television has been held back by the complexity of scanning systems for thin, flat cathode ray tubes. 1978 Government Data Systems July/Aug. 24/3 The displays of the future may well be electrochromic, cathodochromic, PLZT, gas plasma, flat-screen liquid crystals, or electroluminescent. 1983 Austral. Personal Computer Sept. 5/2 (heading) No rise for flat screen displays. 1986 Times 1 Feb. 11/1 Tomorrow's home entertainment—flat-screen, high quality television.

1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Flat-seam, the two edges or selvedges of canvas laid over each other and sewed down.

1869 R. B. Smyth Goldfields Victoria 611 *Flat-sheets, sheet iron flooring at the brace and in the plats and junction of drives to facilitate the turning and management of trucks. 1892 Northumbld. Gloss., Flat sheets, smooth iron plates laid over an even floor at a pit bank, on which the tubs are run to be emptied or returned to the cage.

1928 E. Post Etiquette 626 The most complete list of *flat silver possible. 1968 Canad. Antiques Coll. June 10/3 Of what we call ‘flat silver’ there were of course spoons.

1912 T. Okey Introd. Basket-Making xii. 143 Except for *Flat Skein work, a purely local industry, skeins are chiefly used by the ordinary basket-maker for handling, and for siding up light work. 1943 A. G. Knock Willow Basketry 25 What can be called Flat-Skein Work is being used, each stroke lying as nearly as possible flatly upon the one underneath.

1906 C. S. Hill in Buel & Hill Reinforced Concrete Constr. (ed. 2) ii. vii. 175 (heading) *Flat slab construction. Ibid., The arrangement of the reinforcement in flat-slab floors differs with the form of reinforcement used and with the form of slab arrangement. Ibid. 176 The accompanying drawings..show flat slab constructions with Columbian bars. 1960 K. Billig Struct. Concrete ii. xiv. 537 Because of the absence of exposed corners, flat-slab construction is less vulnerable in case of fire than beam-and-girder construction.

1926 Delineator July 52 In the canning of greens, asparagus, peas, beans and corn, *flat sour seems to be responsible for more failures than any other one factor. 1943 J. G. Baumgartner Canned Foods iv. 63 The facultative anaerobic group of ‘flat-sour’ organisms are so called because they attack carbohydrates with resultant acid..formation. Ibid. 64 Products containing sugar or starch are particularly liable to undergo severe spoilage by the ‘flat-sour’ organisms.

[1873 W. K. Clifford tr. Riemann in Nature 1 May 16/1 These manifoldnesses in which the square of the line-element may be expressed as the sum of the squares of complete differentials I will call flat.] 1883 Encycl. Brit. XV. 664/1 The space with which we are familiar..has been called *flat space or homaloidal space to distinguish it from other spaces in which the curvature is not zero. 1949 Synge & Schild Tensor Calculus viii. 295 A space in which the curvature tensor vanishes identically is called flat. 1953 B. Spain Tensor Calculus v. 56 In a flat space the property of parallelism is independent of the choice of a curve.

1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings iv. 104 Suddenly the machine quivered, swung to the left, and nearly put itself in a *flat spin. 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 23 Flat spin, to be in difficulties. Only applied to an airman. ‘On a flat spin’, in a bad position. 1928 Daily Mail 7 May 6/4 When a person becomes excited or confused, aviators say ‘He went into a flat spin’. 1930 Punch 30 Apr. 500 Getting into a flat spin over the perishing spelling. 1957 M. Spark Comforters vi. 126 It is possible for a man matured in religion by half a century of punctilious observance..to go into a flat spin when faced with some trouble which does not come within a familiar category. 1967 D. Piggott Gliding (ed. 2) xv. 90 Recovery from a flat spin is slow and unpredictable.

1935 C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 307/2 ‘*Flat spot’, a term applied to a particular form of hesitation when the throttle is opened from the slow running position. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 339/2 Flat spot, in a carburettor, a point during increase of air flow (resulting from increased throttle opening or speed) at which the air-fuel ratio becomes so weak as to prevent good acceleration. 1962 Which? Apr. (Suppl.) 74/1 Drivers complained repeatedly of a carburation ‘flat spot’.

1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 299 The files are *flat square.

1896 F. G. Aflalo Nat. Hist. Austral. 232 The *Flat-Tailed Mullet is also met with in estuaries. 1908 D. G. Stead Edible Fishes N.S.W. 43 In form the Flat-tail Mullet is more compressed or slab-sided than the Sea Mullet. 1951 T. C. Roughley Fish Austral. 35 The flat-tail mullet is found in all states except Tasmania.

1853 O. Byrne Artisan's Handbk. 28 *Flat tools for turning hard wood, ivory, and steel.

1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Iron Weed, a plant, called in the North-eastern States *Flat Top. 1943 F. Pratt Navy has Wings 190 ‘Scratch one flat top,’ Commander Dixon's voice had shouted..through the ship's radio. 1943 Time 22 Nov. 26/3 That beats a previous high scorer: the escort carrier ‘B’.., another ‘baby flat-top’. 1955 C. S. Forester Good Shepherd 170 Escort vessels and destroyers and baby flat-tops were coming off the ways as fast as America and England and Canada could build them. 1956 L. S. Trusty Art & Sci. Barbering 93 The principal feature of the Flat Top style is the flat top... The top should be visualized as flat and smooth as the bristles of a brush and in length from 1 and ½ to 3/4 of an inch. 1957 N.Y. Times 2 June vi. 26/1 A stiff version [of the crew cut] is the Flat Top Crew.

1933 ‘R. Stranger’ Dict. Wireless Terms 72 *Flat tuning. A receiver is said to possess flat tuning when a station can be heard over a wide range of movement of the condenser dial. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 339/2 Flat tuning, inability of a tuning system to discriminate sharply between signals having different frequencies.

1934 V. M. Yeates Winged Victory i. ix. 86 An Avro would do anything you wanted..even do a *flat turn just for fun if you kicked the rudder with decision. 1935 P. W. F. Mills Elem. Practical Flying vi. 88 Turns made without any bank, or flat turns, as they are called.

1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. iii. iii. 719/1 Plates, dishes, saucers, &c., termed ‘*flat ware’, are made from moulds which form the inside of the article, the exterior being given by ‘profiles’ of the required outline, made of fired clay, glazed. 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 188 Solid Sterling Flat Ware... Tea Spoons..Dessert Forks..Sugar Shells..Butter Knives. 1901 N.Y. Even. Post 7 May 4/5 A complete line of Rogers Flatware. 1914 G. Atherton Perch of Devil ii. 241 A magnificent silver service, from many dozens of ‘flat ware’, to silver platters. 1952 M. McCarthy Groves of Academe (1953) ix. 198 She seemed to fix her eyes on the flatware and napery with the same hypnotised effort that dragged her fork to her lips and back again.

1927 Glasgow Herald 10 Sept. 4 We cruise back and forward watching for signs. The chief of these is ‘*flat’ water, as the men call the smooth, oily patches that so puzzle landward folk.

1653 E. Manlove Lead-Mines 264 Roof-works, *Flat-works, Pipe-works. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. ix. §7. 335 In hammering of this flat-work they beat the plates first one by one. 1851 Tapping Gloss. to Manlove, Flat Work, a mining term descriptive of a species of lead mine, so called from its form, which is broad, spreading horizontally, not without inclination. [1906 Westm. Gaz. 14 Nov. 9/11 Speaking generally, there has certainly been no rise during recent years, especially in what we call ‘flat’ articles—tablecloths, and such things.] 1921 Electrician 11 Mar. 304/2 In the United States..some women use their power wringer as a cold mangle for the smaller pieces of ‘flat-work’. 1928 Funk's Stand. Dict. I. 937/3 Flat work (Laundry), articles that are not to be starched, as, sheets or pillow-cases, in distinction from starched articles, as, waists, collars, etc.

    B. adv. (Cf. A. 2, in many examples of which the word admits of being taken as adv.)
    † 1. By horizontal measurement. Obs.

1663 Gerbier Counsel 82 Fret seelings..the workmanship only at five shillings a yard, measured flat.

    2. Downright, absolutely, positively, plainly; entirely, fully, quite. Cf. dead adv. 2.

1577–87 Holinshed Chron. II. 33/2 As for Gerrot it differeth flat from Girald. a 1591 R. Greenham Serm. i. (1599) 98 They that are thus borne again..cannot fall flat away by sin. 1601 Dent Pathw. Heaven 246, I am flat of your minde. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 114 The Iron of a Plane is said to be set Rank, when its edge stands so flat below the Sole of the Plane, that..it will take off a thick shaving. 1770 Jenner Placid Man II. 117 Sir Harry contradicted him flat. 1784 R. Bage Barham Downs II. 242 That wild thing, Peggy, told me, flat and plain, if I did so again, she would pull it off. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. lxiv. 621, I be not the mun to crow..so I tell 'ee flat. 1842 Spirit of Times 21 May 138/1 Every friend of Old Whitenose would have been flat broke! 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Flat broke, utterly bankrupt, entirely out of money. 1933 W. S. Maugham Sheppey (1952) ii. 244 You haven't turned it [sc. the governor's invitation] down flat?

    3. † a. Directly, exactly. With respect to the quarter of the heavens: Due. flat against: lit. and fig. directly contrary to. Cf. dead adv. 3.

1531 Tindale Exp. John (1537) 28 When the Sonne is flat sowth. 1538 Leland Itin. IV. 54 Then Porte Crokerton flat Est. 1562 Cooper Answ. Priv. Masse 80 b, Christes wordes and institution is so flat agaynste you, as you [etc.]. 1653–4 Whitelocke Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772) I. 123 The wind continued flatt and high against Whitelocke's course.

    b. Exactly, precisely, not exceeding the stated value: used of amounts, distances, and the like. orig. U.S.

1909 Webster 827/3 Flat,..Without excess; exactly; due;—used chiefly of numbers or quantities; as, to run a hundred yards in ten seconds flat. 1945 Sat. Rev. 4 Aug. 22 This one, for instance,..all you fiendishly clever people will solve in no time flat. 1962 Guardian 5 July 1/5 In no time flat the very voice of Mrs Chichester..was on the horn. 1969 J. Clarke Foxon's Hole viii. 49 It took her about two minutes flat to step into jeans and sweater.

    4. (to sit) flat down: plump on the ground.

1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxviii, Sitting flat down on the floor.

    C. absol. and n.³
    1. absol. (quasi-n.) That which is flat. on the flat: on paper or canvas; on a smooth surface, as opposed to in relief. from the flat: from a painting or drawing on paper, canvas, etc. (opposed to from the round).

1862 J. C. Robinson Ital. Sculpt. 60 Luca..simultaneously with his enamelled terra-cotta sculptures, also practised painting..on the flat. 1884 Cassell's Fam. Mag. Mar. 216/1 Occupied in shading in chalk from the flat. 1885 G. Allen Babylon v, To model a composition in relief from an engraving on the flat.

    b. The flat surface or portion (of anything); esp. the broad surface (of a blade) as opposed to the edge; also, the inside of the open hand, etc.
    Sometimes treated as a n. admitting of a plural, as ‘with the flats of their swords’; but flat is more usual.

c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 899 (927) Beth rather to hym cause of flat than egge. 1470–85 Malory Arthur xvi. viii, Syre Bors..gafe hym grete strokes with the flatte of his swerd vpon the vysage. 1626 Bacon Sylva §145 The Strings of a..Violl..doe giue a far greater Sound, by reason of the Knot, and Board, and Concaue vnderneath, than if there were nothing but onely the Flat of a Board. 1671 Grew Anat. Plants i. i. §16 This Cuticle is not only spread upon the Convex of the Lobes, but also on their Flats, where they are contiguous. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. iv. 69 On the flat of the green..I resolved to pitch my tent. 1727 W. Snelgrave Guinea & Slave Trade (1734) 258 He gave me a slight blow on the Shoulder, with the flat of his Cutlace. 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 77 An island..like the flat of a plate turned bottom up. 1816 Keatinge Trav. (1817) II. 264 The breast, loins, flat of the neck. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth iii, Striking the flat of his hand against that which the armourer expanded towards him. 1833 Regul. Instr. Cavalry i. 47 The flat of the thigh to the saddle. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. xlvi, Here's old Bill Barley on the flat of his back. 1885 Manch. Exam. 23 June 5/3 The military..cleared the piazza with the flats of their swords.

    c. Level country. In Horse-racing: level ground without hedges or ditches; cf. flat-race; also, the level piece of turf at the end of some race-courses. Hence gen. The race-course.

1836 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 180 Sic a..body..could never hae been bred or born on the flat. 1847 G. H. H. Oliphant Law conc. Horses, etc. App. 278 A.F. Across the Flat 1 M. 2 Fur. 24 Yds. 1877 Ouida Puck ix, Your young lordling spends all his..time on the ‘flat’. 1886 Earl of Suffolk, etc. Racing (Badm. Libr.) 273 In steeple-chases, hurdle races, and on the flat. 1892 J. Kent Racing Life C. Bentinck ii. 48 He will win..unless a crow flies down his throat as he comes across the flat.

    2. a. A horizontal plane; a level as opposed to a slope. † on the flat of: on the level or plane of. † of a flat; on the same flat: on the same level or plane.

1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. v. §5. 24 No perfect discouerie can bee made vppon a flatte, or a leuell. 1607 Chapman Bussy d' Ambois Plays 1873 II. 3 They move with equall feet on the same flat. 1626 Bacon Sylva §805 It were good to trie that Exposing of Flesh or Fish both..some height aboue the Earth, and vpon the Flat of the Earth. 1636 Massinger Bashf. Lover iii. i, It was not in The power of fortune to remove me from The flat I firmly stood on. 1650 Trapp Clavis III. 17 The cloud levelled mountains, raised vallies, and laid all of a flat; that is..made all plain. 1791 Bentham Panopt. i. 155 A declivity is..preferable by far to a dead flat. 1822 T. Strangeways Mosquito Shore 28 This high eminence has a flat at top of about 1500 acres.

    b. Sometimes opposed to fall.

1645 Fuller Good Th. in Bad T. (1841) 68 Either on the flat of an ordinary temper, or in the fall of an extraordinary temptation. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. ii. 60 Some three inches of fall to a foot of flat.

    † c. A geometrical plane, irrespective of position; an even surface.

1624 Wotton Archit. ii. 83 It comes neere an Artificiall Miracle; to make diuerse distinct Eminences appeare vpon a Flat, by force of Shadowes. 1659 Moxon Tutor Astron. v. (1686) 137 A Plain in Dyalling is that Flat whereon a Dyal is Described. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 69 Whatsoever moves as much in a flat as it can for the earths rim, we reckon [etc.].

    † d. A plane figure. Obs. rare.

1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 175 Those Superficial Figures called Like Flats..are such..as bear a certain Proportion in their Sides unto each other.

    e. A flat space or flattened surface; spec. a flat place on the tyre or wheel of a vehicle, or the flat space on a commutator caused by sparking or irregularity of rotation.

1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xxvii. 576 Up the cliffs, where caves open inward, flats have been worked upon the rock. 1893 Hawkins & Wallis Dynamo 391 Occasionally, one or two segments in a commutator wear down below the general cylindrical surface of the rest, and form what is known as a ‘flat’. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 3 July 10/2 Flats on the wheels may to a great extent be avoided by skilful driving, but there is a potential ‘flat’ in every skid. 1906 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 808/1 A violent application of the brakes may cause several pounds' worth of damage by grinding a ‘flat’ on the tyres. 1930 Engineering 30 May 708/2 It was suggested that flats in railway wheels could, with advantage, be restricted to a depth of 3 mm. (0 ·118 in.). 1966 H. Sheppard Dict. Railway Slang (ed. 2) 5 Flat, worn part on wheel tyre due to skidding, or, in London Transport, due to excessive braking.

    f. In full optical flat. A block or lamina (usually of glass) with one or more surfaces made accurately plane and smooth, any unevenness or departure from a perfect plane being small compared with the wavelength of light.

1897 Astrophysical Jrnl. V. 134 The second..requires two large optical flats, each about one and one-half times the aperture of the telescope itself. 1932 Hardy & Perrin Princ. Optics xvi. 345 Round flats are edged exactly like lenses but rectangular ones are edged somewhat differently. 1957 R. S. Longhurst Geom. & Physical Optics viii. 135 If an optical flat is placed in contact with a shallow convex spherical surface, a thin air film of varying thickness results. 1971 Nature 30 Apr. 575/1 Silver chloride sheet..was made as flat as possible by compression between glass optical flats.

    3. Building. a. The horizontal part of a roof, usually covered with lead.

1842 Brande Dict. Sc. etc., Flat, that part in the covering of a house, of lead or other metal which is laid horizontal. 1855 Act 18–19 Vict. c. 122 §17 Fifteen inches above the highest part of any flat or gutter.

    † b. A landing on a stair-case; also, the ‘tread’ of a stair.

1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 290 A Stair of 20 Steps, interrupted by a Flat. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §88 There was but one flat or tread of a step above the center of the house.

    4. Mining. a. A horizontal bed or stratum of coal, stone, etc.; a horizontal vein of metal, or a lateral extension of a vein.

1747 Hooson Miner's Dict., The Flat always lies on that Side of the Vein which Faces the Water. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §108 The quarry-men..cross-cut the large flats, which are laid bare. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Flat, a horizontal vein or ore-deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also any horizontal portion of a vein elsewhere not horizontal. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, Flats, subterraneous beds or sheets of trap rock or whin. 1886 G. A. Lebour Geol. Northumb. & Durh. (ed. 2) 62 Flat, the lateral extension of a lead vein.

    b. (See quots.)

1846 Brockett N.C. Words (ed. 3) Flatt, in a coal mine, the situation where the horses take the coal tubs from the putters. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, Flat, a district or set of stalls separated by faults, old workings, or barriers of solid coal. 1892 Northumbld. Gloss., Flat, the part of a screen at a pit where the coals rest, and are cleaned before being put into the waggon.

    5. a. A piece of level ground; a level expanse; a stretch of country without hills, a plain; the low ground through which a river flows.

1296 Newminster Cartul. (1878) 144 Stokwelflatte..Seruonreflatte. c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 507 Fallez vpon fayre flat. ? a 1400 in Cartul. Abb. de Seleby (Yorks. Rec. Ser.) II. 42 Xij seliones jacentes in iiij locis sive flattes. 1510 in Yorksh. Archæol. Jrnl. VII. 59 note, One parcel of land called Peeston's flatt. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 275 Till of this flat a Mountaine you haue made. 1695 Blackmore Pr. Arth. i. 200 Some range the Flats, and Scour the Champain Land. 1759 B. Martin Nat. Hist. Eng. I. 45 A large Flat of barren, heathy ground. 1765–75 P. Pond in C. M. Gates Five Fur Traders (1933) 53 The wind took the Canew up in the Air—Leat hir fall on the frozen flat. 1811 J. Farey Gen. View Agric. Derbysh. I. i. 133 Alluvial flat of loam or sandy loam has accumulated upon the Gravel. 1852 Thackeray Esmond i. iii, A large pleasant green flat, where the village of Castlewood stood. 1857 R. B. Paul Lett. fr. Canterbury, N.Z. iv. 68 The flat on which Mr. Gebbie's house stands. 1877 A. B. Edwards Up Nile viii. 199 The river widens away before us; the flats are green on either side. 1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms (1889) i. 6 Here it widened out into a large, well-grassed flat. 1944 Living off Land iii. 54 These mulga flats contain rocky boulders. 1968 K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 130 The doe usually fed on the plateau, but.., she sometimes came down on to the flats.

fig. 1685 Dryden Pref. 2nd Misc. Wks. 1800 III. 49 Milton's Paradise Lost is admirable; but am I..bound to maintain, that there are no flats amongst his elevations? 18.. De Quincey Convers. Wks. 1863 XIII. 176 Very often it [conversation] sinks into flats of insipidity through mere accident. 1878 Morley Vauvenargues Crit. Misc. 26 The mere bald and sterile flats of character.

    b. A tract of low-lying marshy land; a swamp.

1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 2 All the infections that the Sunne suckes vp From Bogs, Fens, Flats. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. ii. 53 Through bogs and dangerous flats. 1821 Earl of Dudley Lett. 27 Nov. (1840) 294 The flats and swamps of Holland. 1859 Autobiog. Beggar Boy 99 The Cambridgeshire flats or marshes.

    c. Australian. (See quot. 1869.)

1869 R. B. Smyth Goldfields Victoria 611 Flat, a low even tract of land, generally occurring where creeks unite, over which are spread many strata of sand and gravel, with the usual rich auriferous drift immediately overlying the bed-rock. 1874 G. Walch Head over Heels 79 Every man on the flat left his claim. 1879 D. M. Wallace Australas. iv. 68 In the gold districts such deposits form ‘flats’.

    6. Chiefly pl. A nearly level tract, over which the tide flows, or which is covered by shallow water; a shallow, shoal.

1550 J. Coke Eng. & Fr. Heralds (1877) §155. 102 The sea is..full of flattes. 1595 Shakes. John v. vi. 40. 1628 Digby Voy. Medit. (1868) 94 Wee shaped our course to gett ouer the flattes into the riuer of Thames. 1678 R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 477 When we have scap'd so many Rocks and Flatts. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) IV. 1408 We were insensibly drawn upon a large flat, upon which lay innumerable rocks of coral, below the surface of the sea. 1813 J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. 621 The boat grounded on the flats a little to the east of the pier. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Flat..a shallow over which the tide flows..If less than three fathoms, it is called shoal or shallow.

fig. 1644 Milton Educ. 2 Those Grammatick flats & shallows where they stuck.

    7. Agric. † a. One of the larger portions into which the common field was divided; a square furlong.

1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 2 If they [the acres] lye by great flattes or furlonges in the commyn feldes. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 43 In fower dayes the said dozen shearers finished the saide flatte, and there is in it 14 through landes and two gares. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. ii. §32, 3 Ridges, Butts, Flats. 1885 Q. Rev. CLIX. 325 Theoretically each flat was a square of 40 poles, containing 10 acres.

    † b. A tract of arable land; a cornfield. Obs.

1513 Douglas æneis ii. vii (vi). 13 The flate of cornys rank. Ibid. vii. xiii. 38 The ȝallo corn flattis of Lyde.

    c. dial. (See quots.)

1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Flats, same as Feerings. 1884 Chesh. Gloss., Flat, a broad flat bed as distinguished from a narrow rounded butt. We speak of ploughing a field in flats when there is no indication of reens... A wide space covered by any particular crop is called a flat, as ‘a flat o' taters’.

    8. Something broad and thin. a. A thin disc.

1732 Berkeley Alciphr. iv. ix, Is it [a planet] not a round luminous Flat, no bigger than a Sixpence?

    † b. Chiefly pl. Dice of a shape to fall unfairly when thrown. (Cf. A. 5 b.) Obs.

1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 54 What false dise vse they?..flattes, gourdes. 1664 J. Wilson Cheats iv. i. Dram. Wks. (1874) 67 Taught you the use of..the fullam, the flat, the bristle. 1711 Puckle Club 21 note, At dice they have the doctors, the fulloms, loaded dice, flats.

    c. slang. in pl. Playing-cards. Cf. broad n. 6.

1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Flats, a cant name for playing cards. 1821 D. Haggart Life 56 We played at flats in a budging-crib.

    d. Cotton-spinning. (See quot. 1874.)

1851 L. D. B. Gordon in Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal. p. iv**/2 The filaments, after emerging from the flats, lie in nearly parallel lines among the card teeth of the drum. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 878/1 Flat (Carding), a strip of wood clothed with bent teeth, and placed above the large cylinder of a carding-machine.

    e. In a breech-loading gun: The piece of metal projecting from the breech to support the barrel.

1881 Greener Gun 230 When the barrels are for breech-loaders, the flats are formed on the undersides of the breech-ends.

    f. A flat strip of wood inserted under the inner edge of a picture-frame and projecting beyond it; usually gilded. Called also mat.

1886 W. G. Rawlinson in 19th Cent. XIX. 400 Small drawings..greatly injured by the very modern-looking deep gold flats brought close up to them.

    g. In various uses (see quots.).

1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 464/2 Women wear Hair..in Falls or Flats when the hair hangs loose down about the shoulders. 1804 J. Roberts Penn. Farmer 55 It is made like a gate, with five bars or flats. 1847 Halliwell, Flats, small white fresh-water fish, as roach, etc. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Flat..a rough piece of bone for a button mould. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech. I. 878/1 Flat, a surface of size over gilding. 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Flats, Flat Bar Iron. 1891 Century Mag. Feb. 526/2 The Mexican system of crushing grain by hand on the metate, as the flat under the millstone of the Mexicans and native Californians is called. 1893 Farmer Slang, Flats, base money. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 253 Flat. (a) On a stylus, this is a surface of wear which appears on the two sides of the tip after some period of use... (b) On the rubber tyre of an idler wheel, a ‘flat’ is an indentation which may form if the idler is left ‘parked’ in contact with the drive spindle, or other surface. 1967 E. Chambers Photolitho-Offset 272 Flat, a number of negatives stripped-up or assembled in position for printing-down on to a single sheet of metal.

    9. Something broad and shallow. a. A broad, flat-bottomed boat.

1749 W. Douglass Summary (1755) I. 461 A large scow or flat, to carry persons, cattle, and goods with a canoe-tender. 1801 Nelson in A. Duncan Life (1806) 194 The enemy's..flats (lugger-rigged)..were..anchored..Three of the flats and a brig were sunk. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Flats..lighters used in river navigation, and very flat-floored boats for landing troops. 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah I. 21, I..went up in the first Government steamer and flat to Prome.

    b. A broad, shallow basket used for packing produce for the market. Cf. A. 5 e.

1640 in Entick London II. 181 Packs, trusses, flats, or maunds. 1840 New Monthly Mag. LIX. 267 A basket..resembling those which..they call butter-flats. 1886 Daily News 4 Dec. 5/4 Watercress..costs the hawker at the rate of from 16s. to 17s. a flat. 1889 A. T. Pask Eyes Thames 158 The Mimosa comes over in small flat hampers called ‘flats’.

    c. A shallow two-wheeled hand-cart.

1884 Chamb. Jrnl. 5 Jan. 9/1 Butchers' carts, costermongers' flats, and other light conveyances.

    d. (See quots.)

1791 Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing II. ii. i. ii. 32 Silk treated with these galls gained in the dye-bath or flat. 1804 Ct. Rumford in Phil. Trans. XCIV. 178 The broad and shallow vessels (flats) in which brewers cool their wort.

    e. U.S. = flat-car: see A. 15.

1864 in Webster.

    f. Applied to articles of dress. (a) A low shoe or sandal; (b) a low-crowned hat (U.S.).

1834 J. R. Planché Brit. Costume 375 Brogue-uirleaker, that is flats made of untanned leather, graced their feet. 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Flat, a broad-brimmed, low-crowned, straw hat, worn by women. 1864 Miss Wetherell Old Helmet II. xvi. 269 But you will not wear that flat there? 1938 Times 11 Mar. 19/4 With your suit, coloured shoes and bags are favourites. Particularly chic are the crocodile ‘flats’ in cornflower-blue, [etc.]. 1950 A. Lomax Mr. Jelly Roll (1952) i. 19 They wore what they called the St. Louis Flats and the Chicago Flats, made with cork soles and without heels and with gambler designs on the toes.

    10. Ship-building. a. (see quot. 1867.)

1815 Falconer's Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Flats, in ship-building, the name given to all the timbers in midships. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Flats, all the floor-timbers that have no bevellings in mid-ships, or pertaining to the dead-flat. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. v. 95 Horizontal flats extending between the bulkhead and a cast iron cellular stern-post.

    b. The partial deck or floor of a particular compartment.

1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. ix. 177 Iron plates similar to those used in the flats of stoke-holes. 1893 Daily News 3 July 5/6 Tank room, capstan engine flat, and..the patent fuel space.

    11. Theat. A part of a scene mounted on a wooden frame which is pushed in horizontally or lowered on to the stage. Also phr., to join the flats: to make into a consistent whole, to give unity.

[1746 Garrick Let. 11 Dec. in Corresp. (1831) I. 46 He had built up the stage, but as nobody came there, he shut in a flat scene to hide it.] 1795 F. Reynolds Rage ii. ii. 27 An elegant Apartment leading to Lady Sarah's Dressing-Room—the Door in the Flat. 1807 Director II. 331 The entire assemblage of wings and drops and flat. 1836–9 Dickens Sk. Boz (1850) 259/1 A strange jumble of flats, flies, wings [etc.]. 1901 Daily Chron. 21 Aug. 3/4 The ‘flats’ of her career, so to speak, are not quite joined. 1908 Ibid. 29 Apr. 3/3 The ‘flats’ of the new edition are not very well ‘joined’. 1921 G. B. Shaw Pen Portraits (1932) 175 Really, Henry Arthur [Jones], you might at least join your flats. 1923 ― Shaw on Theatre (1958) 161 A pit without stalls, which jeered mercilessly when the flats would not join. 1932 E. V. Lucas Reading, Writing & Remembering iii. 66 He [sc. Mr. Asquith] gave the reporters less work in making him grammatical and fluent than any other speaker. There was no need to join his flats. 1957 Oxf. Compan. Theatre (ed. 2) 264/1 The frame of an English flat consists of four 3 × 1 in. timbers, of which the two vertical side-pieces are the Stiles, and the others, the top and bottom Rails. Ibid. 265/1 In the mid-nineteenth century..it was..used in the phrase ‘a pair of flats’, and was confined to the two separate halves of a back scene... Farther back, the word is used only adjectivally, and the full term is Flat Scene.

    12. House-painting. A surface painted without gloss, so as to appear dead: see dead a. 13 b. Also the pigment employed for this purpose. Cf. flatting. bastard flat (see quot.).

1823 Mechanic's Mag. No. 7. 108 The rooms..were painted with Chinese Flat on walls. 1881 Young Every man his own Mechanic §1591 Bastard Flat is thinned with turpentine and a little oil..To procure a good flat, it is necessary to have a perfectly even glossy ground, and it should be of the same tint, but a little darker than the finishing flat.

    13. slang. A person who is easily taken in, and is said to be ‘only half sharp’; a duffer, simpleton. Cf. A. 8. a prime flat (see quot. 1812).

1762 Goldsm. Nash Wks. (Globe) 546/2 If the flat has no money, the sailor cries, I have more money than any man in the fair. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Flat..any person who is found an easy dupe to the designs of the family is said to be a prime flat. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair x, ‘You wouldn't be such a flat as to let three thousand a year go out of the family.’

    14. Music. a. A note lowered half a tone below the natural pitch. b. In musical notation, the sign ♭ which indicates this lowering of the note; a double flat ♭♭ indicates that it must be lowered by two semitones. c. sharps and flats: the black keys of the keyboard of a piano.

1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 21 It can neuer be goode musicke, that stands all vpon sharpes, and neuer a flat. a 1634 Randolph Muses' Looking-Gl. iv. v, The lutenist takes flats and sharps, And out of those so dissonant notes does strike A ravishing harmony. 1669 Cokaine Fun. Elegy T. Pilkington Poems 78 His Flats were all harmonious. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. i. iv. 15, I have seen some songs with four flats. 1694 Phil. Trans. XVIII. 72 Flats or Half-notes to other Keys. 1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. iii. 57 Methods of altering their Tunes, by Flats and Sharps placed at the Beginning. 1806 J. W. Callcott Mus. Gram. v. 57 The mark now used for the Flat was originally the letter B. 1834 Medwin Angler in Wales I. 215 Twelve lines in each, of hair and Indian hurl, alternately, like the flats and sharps of a piano. 1872 Banister Music 7 A Flat, ♭, indicates the lowering of the note to which it is prefixed, one semitone.

    d. sharps and flats: used punningly for (a) sharpers and their victims; (b) recourse to weapons.

(a) 1801 Sporting Mag. XVII. 37 There are sharps and flats in Paris as well as London. 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 368 That emporium for sharps and flats, famed Tattersall's.

(b) 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxx, He was somewhat hasty with his flats and sharps.

    15. Short for flat-racer.

1811 Sporting Mag. XXXVIII. 168 He had one of the finest flats in the world in training.

    16. U.S. colloq. to give the flat: to give a flat refusal (to a suitor). (Cf. A. 6.)

1859 in Bartlett Dict. Amer.

    17. attrib. and Comb., as flat-like adj.; flat-catcher, one who takes in simpletons; a swindler; also used of a horse; so flat-catching vbl. n.

1821 Moncrieff Tom & Jerry i. vi. (1828) 22 Do you think we shall get the *flat-catcher [a horse] off to-day? 1841 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 202 Buttoners are those accomplices of thimbleriggers..whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers or decoys, by personating flats. 1864 Lond. Rev. 18 June 643/2 ‘The Bobby’ or chinked-back horse, is another favourite flat-catcher.

1821 Egan Tom & Jerry 346 The no-pinned hero..gave, as a toast, ‘Success to *Flat-catching’.

1813 Sporting Mag. XLII. 24 It would appear degrading and *flat-like.

    
    

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     ▸ flatbread n. any of various types of flat, thin, often unleavened, bread.

1762 P. Murdoch tr. A. F. Büsching New Syst. Geogr. I. 176 The same necessity [sc. hunger], it may be presumed, also put them upon baking the Fladen-brodt or *Flat-bread, which is made of barley, oat, or rye-meal, in large, round, and very thin cakes. 1882 P. B. Du Chaillu Land Midnight Sun I. ix. 119 Milk, cream, butter, cheese, flat bread, and wild strawberries, which the children gathered for me, made up the every-day bill of fare. 2001 N.Y. Mag. 19 Nov. 85/1 Owner Moshe Harizy..bakes his own lafah, the flatbread that makes his turkey shawarma something special.

    
    

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     ▸ flat-panel adj. (a) designating something made using flat panels of material; (b) designating a thin, flat display screen for a television, computer, etc.; having such a screen.

1906 Los Angeles Times 22 Aug. ii.6 (advt.) $13.50 mahogany finished rocker... *Flat panel back. 1960 Jrnl. Applied Physiol. 20 796 (title) Flat panel vacuum thermal insulation. 1977 Aviation Week (Nexis) 11 July 59 Instruments and controls in current aircraft largely would be eliminated by a small number of cathode ray tube, holographic and flat panel displays, and one or more keyboard terminals for control and data entry. 2003 Times (Nexis) 26 Sept. 27 The US company's new product range will include a flat-panel TV and a digital music player.

▪ IV. † flat, v.¹ Obs.
    Pa. tense 4 flat(te, flattide.
    [ad. OF. flatir, flater to dash, hurl, intr. to dash, be thrown down.]
    1. trans. To cast suddenly, dash.

c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 9748 Arthour..Wiþ his sextene, þat on hem plat, And euerich a paien to deþ flat. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 224 Til vigilate þe veil fette water at his eiȝen, And flatte [v.r flat, flattide it] on his face. 1375 Cantic. de Creatione 221 in Anglia I. 303 etc., Doun she flat here face to grounde.

    2. To smite or strike; in quots. absol.

c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 9562 Bothe on helmes and ysen hatten, The dintes of swordes flatten. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 174 Þenne Faytors..flapten [v.r. flatte, flatten] on with fleiles from morwe til euen.

    3. intr. To dash, rush; to dart out.

c 1300 Arth. & Merl. 5672 For the mouthe he [a dragon] had grininge And the tong out flattinge. c 1450 Merlin 275 The saisnes were so many that thei moste flat in to the foreste wolde thei or noon.

▪ V. flat, v.²
    (flæt)
    [f. flat a.]
    † 1. trans. To lay flat or level, raze, overthrow (a person or building). Const. to, with (the earth or ground). Obs.

1607 Tourneur Rev. Trag. ii. ii, I durst vndertake..With halfe those words to flat a Puritanes wife. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. v. 447 Some few [Forts] wherof..he flatted to the ground. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves i. iv. 5 She hath..flatted their strongest Forts. 1637 Heywood Royal King i. i, His bright sword..Pierced the steel crests of barbarous infidels, And flatted them with earth.

    2. Naut. a. To force (the sail) flat or close against the mast. Cf. flat a. 2 e. to flat in a sail (see quot. 1772); also absol.

a 1642 Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts iii. (1704) 329/2 He hears the Seamen cry..flat a Sheet. 1667–70 Davenant & Dryden Tempest i. i, Flat, flat, flat in the fore-sheet there. 1726 Adv. Capt. R. Boyle 25 Who flatted their Sails and laid by till the Spanish Ship came up. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine, Aback, the situation of the sails when their surfaces are flatted against the masts by the force of the wind. 1772 J. H. Moore Pract. Navig. (1810) 275 To flat in, to draw in the aftermost lower corner or clue of a sail towards the middle of a ship, to give the sail a greater power to turn the vessel. To flat in forward, to draw in the fore-sheet, jib-sheet [etc.], towards the middle of the ship.

    † b. intr. Of a ship: To turn her head from the wind; to go round on her keel. Obs.

1622 R. Hawkins Voy. S. Sea §34. 85 For in lesse then her length, shee flatted, and in all the Voyage but at that instant, she flatted with difficultie.

    † c. Of the wind: To abate, drop. Obs.

1748 Anson's Voy. iii. i. 297 The wind flatted to a calm.

    3. trans. To make flat in shape. a. To reduce to a plane surface; to reduce or obliterate the convexity, projections, or protuberances of. b. To make broad and thin; to reduce the thickness or height of, esp. by pressure or percussion; to squeeze or beat flat. Also with down, out.
    Now chiefly in technical use; ordinarily flatten.

a. 1613 M. Ridley Magn. Bodies 5 Egge forme flatted at the bottome. 1626 Bacon Sylva §477 Take two Twigs of seuerall Fruit Tres, and flat them on the Sides. 1684 R. Waller Nat. Exper. 76 The Ball..was flatted so, that it would stand upon the bottom. 1697 Creech Manilius iv. 980 She..Distends their swelling Lips, and flats their Nose. 1803 Fessenden Terrible Tractoration i. (ed. 2) 50 note, Suppose that the earth was flatted near the poles. 1857 Fraser's Mag. LVI. 608 The smooth crisp curves..become cockled, flatted, and destroyed.

b. 1651 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 285 The bullet itself was flatted. 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 279 In drying them [Abricots]..leave them whole..only flatting them, that they may be equal in every part. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece i. ii. 163 Make them into Loaves, and flat them down a little. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. VIII. 99 (The Wasp) The composition is at length flatted out until it becomes a small leaf. 1780 Von Troil's Iceland 356 Fishes..which are to be found in slate, have been compressed or flatted. 1837 Marryat Dog-Fiend lv, Smallbones was flatted to a pancake. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 128 A suitable stone is selected and flatted to a proper thickness by holding it against a diamond mill which is kept wetted.

    c. To spread or lay out flat.

1709 Congreve Ovid's Art of Love, A Face too long shou'd part and flat the Hair.

    † 4. a. intr. To become flattened. Of a swelling: To go down, lose its roundness. Obs.

1670 Cotton Espernon i. iii. 143 A Harquebuss-shot..that passing through one of his cheeks..flatted upon his Gorget. 1677 Temple Cure Gout Wks. 1814 III. 260, I..observed the skin about it to shrink, and the swelling to flat yet more than at first. 1725 Huxham Small-pox in Phil. Trans. XXXIII. 393 His Pox flatted and grew pale.

    b. U.S. to flat off: to slope gradually to a level. to flat out: to become gradually thinner. Hence fig. to fail in business; to prove a failure, to collapse, etc.

1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., To Flat out, to collapse, to prove a failure..as ‘The meeting flatted out’. 1864 Bushnell Work & Play, Growth of Law 123 The great surge of numbers rolls up noisily and imposingly, but flats out on the shore and slides back into the mud of oblivion. 1865 Thoreau Cape Cod. ix. 166 The bank flatted off for the last ten miles. 1865 Holland Plain T. iv. 129 Those who have failed in trade..or to use an expressive Yankee phrase, have ‘flatted out’ in a calling or profession. 1887 Proctor Amer. in Knowledge 1 June 184/1 To flat out, to diminish in value—a Western phrase suggested by the diminished productiveness of metallic layers as they grow thinner.

    † 5. ? To find the horizontal area of (land). Obs.

1770 E. Heslerton Inclos. Act 13 To flat, set out, and allot the lands.

    † 6. a. trans. To render (wine, etc.) insipid or vapid.

1626 [see flatted 4]. 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. 211 To demonstrate by what Principles Wines and Spirits are made, exalted, depressed, and flatted. 1703 Art & Myst. Vintners 11 The Genuine Spirits of the Wine also are much flatted and impaired.

    † b. To make dull or spiritless; to make less lively or vivid; to deaden, depress. Obs.

1648 Eikon Bas. xvi. 141 Nor are constant Formes of Prayers more likely to flat and hinder the Spirit of prayer and devotion. 1692 Burnet Past. Care ix. 111 So great a length does..flat the Hearers, and tempt them to sleep. 1697 Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. ii. (1709) 90 Any considerable Degrees of Sickness or Age flat the Senses. 1699 Burnet 39 Art. x. (1700) 118 That Impression is worn out and flatted. 1710 Norris Chr. Prud. vi. 278 A multitude of words..which serve only to flat and deaden out devotion.

    † c. intr. To become dull, depressed or feeble; to droop, to slacken. Obs.

1654 Fuller Ephemeris Pref. 5 Their loyalty flatteth and deadeth by degrees. 1692 Temple Mem. Wks. I. 448 The Hopes of those great Actions..began to flat. a 1718 Penn Maxims Wks. 1726 I. 819 Our Resolutions are apt to flat again upon fresh Temptations.

    7. Music. To lower (a note) by one semitone.

1674 [see flatting vbl. n. 3]. 1685 Boyle Effects of Mot. vii. 88 A determinate note, which..was Ce fa ut a little flatted. (In some mod. Dicts.) 1868 Harper's Mag. Aug. 429/2 A bull..commenced to bellow, which awoke our friend, who..exclaimed—dreaming, of course, that some member of his class was exercising his vocal organ—‘I say, you have flatted your A, and it won't do!’ 1895 North Amer. Rev. July 11 When a person has a poor ear for music, he will flat and sharp right along. 1944 W. Apel Harvard Dict. Mus. 332/2 Variants in which some of the original tones are flatted.

    8. a. To cover (a surface) with flat, i.e. lustreless, paint. b. Carriage-building. To remove the gloss from (a surface) preparatory to varnishing. c. To apply a finish of size to (gilding) as a protection.

a. 1842–76 Gwilt Archit. §2290 The ceilings..to be painted..and flatted and picked in with..extra colours. 1858 Skyring's Builders' Prices 95 Moulded Skirtings..If flatted, add 0½d. 1889 Pall Mall G. 15 May 1/2 Preferring to set it [a picture] on one side after it has been flatted in.

b. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 222/1 Apply a second coat of black Japan, and flat again. The whole should then be varnished with hard drying varnish, flatted down and finished.

c. 1841 in Maunder Sci. & Lit. Treas.

    9. U.S. colloq. To give a flat refusal to; to reject (a lover). Cf. flat n. 16.

1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., To flat, to reject a lover; as..‘She flatted him’.

    10. intr. To fish from a flat (n.³ 9 a).

1630 Descr. Thames (1758) 75 That every Hebberman shall fish by the Shore..and not to lie a Floating or Flatting for Smelts between two Anchors in the Midst of the Stream.

    11. To saw lengthwise through the thickness of a plank, deal, or batten, so reducing the width.

1883 M. P. Bale Saw-Mills 333 Flatting, sawing through the flat or thinnest way of boards. 1945 J. W. Bush in N. W. Kay Pract. Carpenter & Joiner iv. 68 This machine is most useful for..flatting, that is, resawing deals into scantlings.

▪ VI. † flat, v.³ Obs. rare^—1.
    In 7 flatt.
    [? f. L. flāt- ppl. stem of flāre to blow.]
    trans. ? To blow (a trumpet).

1675 H. Teonge Diary 25 Dec. (1825) 127 Chrismas day wee keepe thus. At 4 in the morning our trumpeters all doe flatt their trumpetts, and begin at our Captain's cabin..playing a levite at each cabine doore.

▪ VII. † flat, v.⁴ Obs.
    [? ad. OF. flat-er to flatter; cf. however flaite v.¹]
    To flatter; in quot. absol.

1513 Douglas æneis iv. Prol. 240 Quhat slycht dissait quently to flat and fene.

▪ VIII.     flat, v.⁵ Austral. and N.Z.
    Brit. /flæt/, U.S. /flæt/, Austral. /flæt/, N.Z. /flæt/
    [‹ flat n.²]
    1. intr. To live in a flat; to share a flat with one or more flatmates.
    Dict. N.Z. Eng. (1997) at that entry notes that ‘Dr Desmond Hurley recalls the term flat with (others) from late 1940s student use’.

1966 Telegraph (Brisbane) 26 Dec. 11 Rosemarie Gunn, 21, of Wagaby, St. George..flats in Brisbane at New Farm. 1968 B. Cooper House of Masks iii. 28 So, you're still flatting with Maggie Nairn, eh? 1982 F. Bream Island of Fear ii. 20 My sister Zoe flats in Auckland. 2004 Daily Tel. (Sydney) (Nexis) 15 May 38 At the time, 28-year-old Mary was flatting with a friend called Andrew Miles.

    2. intr.to go flatting: to leave the family home to live in a flat, esp. one shared with others.

1967 H. Hunter Case for Punishment iv. 74 The very day Margaret..turned sixteen, she up and left, to go flatting. 1973 Telegraph (Brisbane) 5 June 36/2 So you've decided to leave the protected family arena and go flatting, and nothing and nobody is going to stop you. 1985 M. King Being Pakeha iii. 71 In my third year I left home, went flatting with David Shand. 2004 Evening Standard (Palmerston North, N.Z.) (Nexis) 15 May 3 Some of the students will be placed in homestays, while others will go flatting, supported by people to help with mowing the lawns and with housekeeping duties.

Oxford English Dictionary