English
flat
Pronunciation Adjective

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

  1. Having no variations in height.
    The land around here is flat.
  2. (music, voice) Without variations in pitch.
  3. (slang) Having small or invisible breasts and/or buttocks.
    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.
    • A large part of the work is, to me, very flat.
    • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:
      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. (figurative) 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,[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Much_Ado_About_Nothing_(Shakespeare)]
      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, especially, of a character) Lacking in depth, substance, or believability; underdeveloped; one-dimensional.
    Antonyms: round
    The author added a chapter to flesh out the books' flatter characters.
  19. (commerce, not comparable) Fixed; unvarying.
    a flat fee; flat rates; a flat fare on public transport
Synonyms Antonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • French: bémol
  • Italian: bemolle
  • Portuguese: bemol
  • Russian: бемо́ль
Translations Translations
  • French: plat
  • German: schal
  • Italian: sgasata
  • Portuguese: sem gás
  • Spanish: sin gas
Translations Translations Translations Adverb

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.
    • Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty.
  6. (finance, slang) Without allowance for accrued interest.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

flat (plural flats)

  1. An area of level ground.
    • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Envy
      Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat.
  2. (music) A note played a semitone lower than a natural, denoted by the symbol ♭ 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.
  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 or pallet.
    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. (rail, US) A railroad car without a roof, and whose body is a platform without sides; a platform car or flatcar.
  11. A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
  12. (geometry) A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.
  13. A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
  14. A flat sheet for use on a bed.
    • 1986, New York Magazine (volume 19, number 49, page 20)
      You might think that Americans buy roughly the same number of fitted sheets as flats. Or, considering the market for electric blankets, duvets, and other covers, that consumers buy even more bottom sheets, simply forgoing the tops.
  15. A platform on a wheel, upon which emblematic designs etc. are carried in processions.
  16. (mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal.
  17. (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! ..."
  18. (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.
  19. (entomology) Any of various hesperiid butterflies that spread their wings open when they land.
  20. (historical) An early kind of toy soldier having a flat design.
    • 2019, Luigi Toiati, The History of Toy Soldiers (page 78)
      Among the many US museums hosting flats, we may mention the Toy Soldier Museum in the Pocono Mountains, supervised by the historian, collector and dealer J. Hillestad.
Antonyms Translations
  • Portuguese: planura
  • Russian: равни́на
Translations
  • French: bémol
  • Italian: bemolle
  • Portuguese: bemol
  • Russian: бемо́ль
  • Spanish: bemol
Translations Translations
  • Italian: scarpe senza tacco, ballerine
  • Russian: туфли-балетки
Translations
  • Russian: пло́скость
Verb

flat (flats, present participle flatting; past and past participle flatted)

  1. (poker slang) To make a flat call; to call without raise#Verb|raising.
  2. (intransitive) To become flat or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.
  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.
      quote en
  6. (transitive, dated) To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.
    • Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted.
Noun

flat (plural flats)

  1. (chiefly, British, New England, New Zealand and Australian, 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.
Synonyms Verb

flat (flats, present participle flatting; past and past participle flatted)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To beat or strike; pound
  2. (transitive) To dash or throw
  3. (intransitive) To dash, rush


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