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(), a.[Compar.Flatter (); superl.Flattest ().] [Akin to Icel. flatr, Sw. flat, Dan. flad, OHG. flaz, and AS. flet floor, G. fltz stratum, layer.] 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. (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. 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 S Flat (), adv. 1. In a flat manner; directly; flatly. Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty. Herbert. 2. (Stock Exchange) Without allowance for accrued interest. [Broker's Cant] 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. 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) 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 bui Flat (), v. t.[imp. & p. p.Flatted (); p. pr. & vb. n.Flatting ().] 1. To make flat; to flatten; to level. 2. To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress. Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted. Barrow. 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. Sir W. Temple. 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.] Flat a. 1. (Golf) Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft; -- said of a club. 2. (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 -, the loss of this ending having made them like the adjectives. Some having forms in ly, such as exceeding, wonderful, true, are now archaic. 3. (Hort.) Flattening at the ends; -- said of certain fruits. スポンサード リンク
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