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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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