flat

• enPR: flăt, IPA^(key): /flæt/

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• Rhymes: -æt

From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr[1] (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”)[2].

• flatt, flatte (both obsolete)

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

1. Having no variations in height.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess‎:

     The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].

   The land around here is flat.

2. (music, voice) Without variations in pitch.
3. (slang) Describing certain features, usually the breasts and/or buttocks, that are extremely small or not visible at all.

   That girl is completely flat on both sides.

4. (music, note) Lowered by one semitone.
5. (music) Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.

   Your A string is too flat.

6. (of a tire or other inflated object) Deflated, especially because of a puncture.
7. Uninteresting.

   The party was a bit flat.

   • Coleridge

     A large part of the work is, to me, very flat.

   • Shakespeare

     How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world.

8. Of a carbonated drink, with all or most of its carbon dioxide having come out of solution so that the drink no longer fizzes or contains any bubbles.
9. (wine) Lacking acidity without being sweet.
10. (of a battery) Unable to emit power; dead.
11. (juggling, of a throw) Without spin; spinless.
12. (figuratively) Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; dull and boring.

    The market is flat.

    The dialogue in your screenplay is flat -- you need to make it more exciting.

13. Absolute; downright; peremptory.

    His claim was in flat contradiction to experimental results.

    I'm not going to the party and that's flat.

    • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV, Scene 2,

      SECOND WATCH. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.

      DOGBERRY. Flat burglary as ever was committed

    • 1602, John Marston, Antonio and Mellida, Malone Society Reprint, 1921, Act I, lines 324-326,

      He is made like a tilting staffe; and lookes

      For all the world like an ore-rosted pigge:

      A great Tobacco taker too, thats flat.

14. (phonetics, dated, of a consonant) sonant; vocal, as distinguished from a sharp (non-sonant) consonant
15. (grammar) Not having an inflectional ending or sign, such 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', etc. are from Old English.

16. (golf, of a golf club) Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft.
17. (horticulture, of certain fruits) Flattening at the ends.
18. (authorship, figuratively, esp. of a character) Lacking in depth, substance, or believability; underdeveloped; one-dimensional.

    Antonym: round

    The author created the site to flesh out the books' flatter characters, who were actually quite well developed in her own mind.

• (having no variations in altitude): even, planar, plane, smooth, uniform
• (deflated): deflated, punctured
• (without variations in pitch): monotone
• (uninteresting): boring, dull, uninteresting
• (of wine: lacking acidity): flabby

• (having no variations in altitude): bumpy, cratered, hilly (of terrain), rough (of a surface), wrinkled (of a surface)
• (music: lowered by one semitone): sharp
• (music: lower in pitch than it should be): sharp

flat (comparative more flat, superlative most flat)

1. So as to be flat.

   Spread the tablecloth flat over the table.

2. Bluntly.

   I asked him if he wanted to marry me and he turned me down flat.

3. (with units of time, distance, etc) Not exceeding.

   He can run a mile in four minutes flat.

4. Completely.

   I am flat broke this month.

5. Directly; flatly.
   • Herbert

     Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty.

6. (finance, slang) Without allowance for accrued interest.

• (so as to be flat):
• (bluntly): bluntly, curtly
• (not exceeding): tops
• (completely): absolutely, completely, utterly

A flat tire

flat (plural flats)

1. An area of level ground.
   • Francis Bacon

     Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

2. (music) A note played a semitone lower than a natural, denoted by the symbol ♭ sign placed after the letter representing the note (e.g., B♭) or in front of the note symbol (e.g. ♭♪).
3. (informal, automotive) A flat tyre/tire.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     The next one surrendered his bike, only for that, too, to give him a second flat as he started the descent.

4. (in the plural) A type of ladies' shoes with very low heels.

   She liked to walk in her flats more than in her high heels.

5. (in the plural) A type of flat-soled running shoe without spikes.
6. (painting) A thin, broad brush used in oil and watercolor/watercolour painting.
7. The flat part of something:
   1. (swordfighting) The flat side of a blade, as opposed to the sharp edge.
   2. The palm of the hand, with the adjacent part of the fingers.
8. A wide, shallow container.

   a flat of strawberries

9. (mail) A large mail piece measuring at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches, such as catalogs, magazines, and unfolded paper enclosed in large envelopes.
10. (geometry) A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.
11. A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
12. A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
13. (rail transport, US) A railroad car without a roof, and whose body is a platform without sides; a platform car or flatcar.
14. A platform on a wheel, upon which emblematic designs etc. are carried in processions.
15. (mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Raymond to this entry?)

16. (obsolete) A dull fellow; a simpleton.
    • 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., "The Music-Grinders":

      ... if you cannot make a speech,

      Because you are a flat,

      Go very quietly and drop

      A button in the hat!

    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 14:

      "He fancies he can play at billiards," said he. "I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-Tree. HE play, the young flat! ..."

17. (technical, theatre) A rectangular wooden structure covered with masonite, lauan, or muslin that depicts a building or other part of a scene, also called backcloth and backdrop.

• (note): sharp
• (shoes): high heels

• Ash Flat
• container flat
• mudflat
• tidal flat

flat (third-person singular simple present flats, present participle flatting, simple past and past participle flatted)

1. (poker slang) To make a flat call; to call without raising.
2. (intransitive) To become flat or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir W. Temple to this entry?)

3. (intransitive, music, colloquial) To fall from the pitch.
4. (transitive, music) To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.
5. (transitive, dated) To make flat; to flatten; to level.
   • 1764, James Granger, M.D., The Sugar-Cane: a Poem. In Four Books. With Notes. Book 1, page 44, note to verse 605.

     The pods, which seldom contain less than thirty nuts of the size of a flatted olive, grow upon the stem and principal branches.

6. (transitive, dated) To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.
   • Barrow

     Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted.

A block of flats (apartments) in Wrocław

From 1795, alteration of Scots flet (“inner part of a house”), from Middle English flet (“dwelling”), from Old English flet, flett (“ground floor, dwelling”), from Proto-Germanic *flatją (“floor”), from Proto-Germanic *flataz (“flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“flat”). Akin to Old Frisian flet, flette (“dwelling, house”). More at flet, flat₁.

flat (plural flats)

1. (chiefly Britain, New England, New Zealand and Australia, archaic elsewhere) An apartment, usually on one level and usually consisting of more than one room.
   • 1905, Sydney Perks, Residential flats of all classes, including artisans' dwellings: a practical treatise on their planning and arrangement, together with chapters on their history, financial matters, etc.,with numerous illustrations, page 204,

     The excellence of French flats is so well known in America, that the owner will often refer to his property as "first class French flats."

   • 1983, Tai Ching Ling, Relocation and Population Planning: A Study of the Implications of Public Housing and Family Planning in Singapore, Wilfredo F. Arce, Gabriel C. Alvarez (editors), Population Change in Southeast Asia, page 184,

     Fifteen percent of this group said that they were not satisfied with the public housing estates and their HDB^{[Singapore Housing & Development Board]} flats (see Tables 11 and 12 respectively).

   • 2002, MIchael Ottley, Briefcase on Company Law, page 76,

     The Greater London Council formed the Estmanco company to manage a block of 60 council-owned flats. The council entered into an agreement with the company to sell off the flats to owner-occupiers.

   • 2014, Terry Gourvish, Dolphin Square: The History of a Unique Building, page 75,

     When the Dolphin Square's flats were first offered to the public in 1936, the South Block was still under construction, and the North Block was a building site.

• (apartment): apartment

• block of flats
• coldwater flat
• flatlet
• flatmate
• flatter

• falt

Borrowed from English flat.

• (Hollandic) IPA^(key): /ˈflɛt/
• (Belgian Dutch) IPA^(key): /ˈflɑt/
• (Hollandic)

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flat m (plural flats, diminutive flatje n)

1. flat, apartment
2. tower block

• galerijflat
• torenflat

flat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of flō

From Old Norse flatr

flat (neuter singular flatt, definite singular and plural flate, comparative flatere, indefinite superlative flatest, definite superlative flateste)

1. flat

• flatbrystet

• “flat” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse flatr

flat (neuter singular flatt, definite singular and plural flate, comparative flatare, indefinite superlative flatast, definite superlative flataste)

1. flat

• “flat” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /flɑːt/

flāt

1. first-person singular preterite form of flītan
2. third-person singular preterite form of flītan

flat m (genitive singular flat, plural flataichean)

1. saucer
2. flat, apartment

• (saucer): sàsar

From Old Norse flatr, from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“flat”).

flat

1. flat (having no variations in altitude)

   Solen reflekterades i spegelns flata yta.

   The sun was reflected in the flat surface of the mirror.

2. spineless, being a doormat, abstaining from defending one's convictions

   Han var alldeles för flat mot chefen, och fick inte heller någon löneökning.

   He let the manager walk all over him and did not get a raise.

• (flat): platt
• (spineless): eftergiven, mjäkig