GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 5 definitions
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Flat (flăt), a. [Compar. Flatter (flătˈrẽr); superl. Flattest (flătˈtĕst).] [Akin to Icel. flatr, Sw. flat, Dan. flad, OHG. flaz, and AS. flet floor, G. flötz stratum, layer.]
1. Having an even and horizontal surface, or nearly so, without prominences or depressions; level without inclination; plane.
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Though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk. Milton.
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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.
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What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat! Milton.
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I feel . . . my hopes all flat. Milton.
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3. (Fine Arts) Wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest.
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A large part of the work is, to me, very flat. Coleridge.
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4. Tasteless; stale; vapid; insipid; dead; as, “fruit or drink flat to the taste”.
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5. Unanimated; dull; uninteresting; without point or spirit; monotonous; as, “a flat speech or composition”.
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How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world. Shak.
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6. Lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull; as, “the market is flat”.
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7. Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright.
Syn. -- flat-out.
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Flat burglary as ever was committed. Shak.
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A great tobacco taker too, -- that's flat. Marston.
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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”.
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9. (Phonetics) Sonant; vocal; -- applied to any one of the sonant or vocal consonants, as distinguished from a nonsonant (or sharp) consonant.
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10. (Golf) Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft; -- said of a club.
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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 -ë, the loss of this ending having made them like the adjectives. Some having forms in ly, such as exceeding, wonderful, true, are now archaic.
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12. (Hort.) Flattening at the ends; -- said of certain fruits.
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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. Knight. -- 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. Knight. -- 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. Raymond. -- Flat rope, a rope made by plaiting instead of twisting; gasket; sennit. Some flat hoisting ropes, as for mining shafts, are made by sewing together a number of ropes, making a wide, flat band. Knight. -- 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”.
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Of all who fell by saber or by shot,
Not one fell half so flat as Walter Scott. Lord Erskine.
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Flat (?), adv.
1. In a flat manner; directly; flatly.
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Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty. Herbert.
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2. (Stock Exchange) Without allowance for accrued interest. [Broker's Cant]
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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”.
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Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat. Bacon.
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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.
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Half my power, this night
Passing these flats, are taken by the tide. Shak.
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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.
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4. The flat part, or side, of anything; as, the broad side of a blade, as distinguished from its edge.
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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.
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6. (Mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal. Raymond.
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7. A dull fellow; a simpleton; a numskull. [Colloq.]
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Or if you can not make a speech,
Because you are a flat. Holmes.
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8. (Mus.) A character [♭] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.
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9. (Geom.) A homaloid space or extension.
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Flat (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flatted (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Flatting (?).]
1. To make flat; to flatten; to level.
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2. To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.
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Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted. Barrow.
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3. To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.
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Flat, v. i.
1. To become flat, or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface. Sir W. Temple.
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2. (Mus.) To fall form the pitch.
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To flat out, to fail from a promising beginning; to make a bad ending; to disappoint expectations. [Colloq.]
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