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Flat   /flæt/   Listen
noun
Flat  n.  
1.
A level surface, without elevation, relief, or prominences; an extended plain; specifically, in the United States, a level tract along the along the banks of a river; as, the Mohawk Flats. "Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat."
2.
A level tract lying at little depth below the surface of water, or alternately covered and left bare by the tide; a shoal; a shallow; a strand. "Half my power, this night Passing these flats, are taken by the tide."
3.
Something broad and flat in form; as:
(a)
A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
(b)
A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
(c)
(Railroad Mach.) A car without a roof, the body of which is a platform without sides; a platform car.
(d)
A platform on wheel, upon which emblematic designs, etc., are carried in processions.
4.
The flat part, or side, of anything; as, the broad side of a blade, as distinguished from its edge.
5.
(Arch.) A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, A floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself; an apartment taking up a whole floor. In this latter sense, the usage is more common in British English.
6.
(Mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal.
7.
A dull fellow; a simpleton; a numskull. (Colloq.) "Or if you can not make a speech, Because you are a flat."
8.
(Mus.) A character flat before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.
9.
(Geom.) A homaloid space or extension.


adjective
Flat  adj.  (compar. flatter; superl. flattest)  
1.
Having an even and horizontal surface, or nearly so, without prominences or depressions; level without inclination; plane. "Though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk."
2.
Lying at full length, or spread out, upon the ground; level with the ground or earth; prostrate; as, to lie flat on the ground; hence, fallen; laid low; ruined; destroyed. "What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat!" "I feel... my hopes all flat."
3.
(Fine Arts) Wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest. "A large part of the work is, to me, very flat."
4.
Tasteless; stale; vapid; insipid; dead; as, fruit or drink flat to the taste.
5.
Unanimated; dull; uninteresting; without point or spirit; monotonous; as, a flat speech or composition. "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world."
6.
Lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull; as, the market is flat.
7.
Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright.
Synonyms: flat-out. "Flat burglary as ever was committed." "A great tobacco taker too, that's flat."
8.
(Mus.)
(a)
Below the true pitch; hence, as applied to intervals, minor, or lower by a half step; as, a flat seventh; A flat.
(b)
Not sharp or shrill; not acute; as, a flat sound.
9.
(Phonetics) Sonant; vocal; applied to any one of the sonant or vocal consonants, as distinguished from a nonsonant (or sharp) consonant.
10.
(Golf) Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft; said of a club.
11.
(Gram.) Not having an inflectional ending or sign, as a noun used as an adjective, or an adjective as an adverb, without the addition of a formative suffix, or an infinitive without the sign to. Many flat adverbs, as in run fast, buy cheap, are from AS. adverbs in -e, the loss of this ending having made them like the adjectives. Some having forms in ly, such as exceeding, wonderful, true, are now archaic.
12.
(Hort.) Flattening at the ends; said of certain fruits.
Flat arch. (Arch.) See under Arch, n., 2. (b).
Flat cap, cap paper, not folded. See under Paper.
Flat chasing, in fine art metal working, a mode of ornamenting silverware, etc., producing figures by dots and lines made with a punching tool.
Flat chisel, a sculptor's chisel for smoothing.
Flat file, a file wider than its thickness, and of rectangular section. See File.
Flat nail, a small, sharp-pointed, wrought nail, with a flat, thin head, larger than a tack.
Flat paper, paper which has not been folded.
Flat rail, a railroad rail consisting of a simple flat bar spiked to a longitudinal sleeper.
Flat rods (Mining), horizontal or inclined connecting rods, for transmitting motion to pump rods at a distance.
Flat rope, a rope made by plaiting instead of twisting; gasket; sennit. Note: Some flat hoisting ropes, as for mining shafts, are made by sewing together a number of ropes, making a wide, flat band.
Flat space. (Geom.) See Euclidian space.
Flat stitch, the process of wood engraving. (Obs.) Flat tint (Painting), a coat of water color of one uniform shade.
To fall flat (Fig.), to produce no effect; to fail in the intended effect; as, his speech fell flat. "Of all who fell by saber or by shot, Not one fell half so flat as Walter Scott."


adverb
Flat  adv.  
1.
In a flat manner; directly; flatly. "Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty."
2.
(Stock Exchange) Without allowance for accrued interest. (Broker's Cant)


verb
Flat  v. t.  (past & past part. flatted; pres. part. flatting)  
1.
To make flat; to flatten; to level.
2.
To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress. "Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted."
3.
To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.


Flat  v. i.  
1.
To become flat, or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.
2.
(Mus.) To fall form the pitch.
To flat out, to fail from a promising beginning; to make a bad ending; to disappoint expectations. (Colloq.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Flat" Quotes from Famous Books



... my own account this time. I have taken the flat opposite to ours, on the same floor. Plumet makes frames, while I make gowns. I have already three workgirls, and enough customers to give me a start. I do not charge them very ...
— The Ink-Stain, Complete • Rene Bazin
... in the forest impervious to the sun and moon's rays, the sudden transition to light has a fine heart-cheering effect. In coming out of the woods you see the western bank of the Essequibo before you, low and flat. Proceeding onwards past many islands which enliven the scene, you get to the falls and rapids. When the river is swollen, as it was in May, 1812, it is a dangerous task ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume 19 - Travel and Adventure • Various
... his head drooped upon his chest. Then, slowly, he dismounted, having ordered his horse to kneel, and the beast, unable to rise again, rolled over on its side. Paullus watched it with almost an expression of pity, and then dragged himself to a flat rock and sat down. ...
— The Lion's Brood • Duffield Osborne
... me to do whatever I had refused to do. My arms and hands were my only weapons of defence. My feet were still in plaster casts, and my back had been so severely injured as to necessitate my lying flat upon it most of the time. It was thus that these unequal fights were fought. And I had not even the satisfaction of tongue-lashing my oppressors, for I ...
— A Mind That Found Itself - An Autobiography • Clifford Whittingham Beers
... expenditure; all real workers, none of them the fancy stenographers that their employers frequently take out to little lunches at the smarter restaurants at safe distance from their wives up town. They were not a very attractive crowd—thin, flat-chested, and often anaemic, occasionally with pretty faces, hair, or eyes; but work, daily work, had left its impress on them all. Some (their luncheon bills did not exceed ten cents) looked, with their thin fingers and arms, like human attachments to typewriting machines. There ...
— Impressions of a War Correspondent • George Lynch


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