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Flat

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. (Milton)

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! (Milton) I feel . . . My hopes all flat. (Milton)

3. Wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest. A large part of the work is, to me, very flat. (Coleridge)

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. (Shak)

6. Lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull; as, the market is flat.

7. Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright. Flat burglary as ever was committed. (Shak) A great tobacco taker too, that's flat. (Marston)

8. Below the true pitch; hence, as applied to intervals, minor, or lower by a half step; as, a flat seventh; a flat. Not sharp or shrill; not acute; as, a flat sound.

9. Sonant; vocal; applied to any one of the sonant or vocal consonants, as distinguished from a nonsonant (or sharp) consonant. Flat arch.

(Science: geometry) a coat of water colour of one uniform shade. To fall flat, 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. (lord Erskine)

Origin: akin to Icel. Flatr, Sw. Flat, dan. Flad, OHG. Flaz, and as. Flet floor, g. Flotz stratum, layer.

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. (Bacon)

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. (Shak)

3. Something broad and flat in form; as: a flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.

a straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.

(Science: machinery) a car without a roof, the body of which is a platform without sides; a platform car.

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. A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms 884

a complete residence in itself.

6. (Science: chemical) 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. Or if you can not make a speech, Because you are a flat. (Holmes)

8. A character [<flat/] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.

9. (Science: geometry) a homaloid space or extension.