flat 
" You diil "not seek a partner in the peerage, Mr. New- 
come." t; No, no, not such a confounded flat as that," 
cries Mr. Newcome. Thackeray, Neweomes, xvi. 
6. In arch.: (a) See flat 2 , (b) A horizontal 
or approximately horizontal roof, usually, in 
northern climates, covered with lead or tin. 
7. In music: (a) A tone one half-step below a 
given tone: as, the flat of B that is, ^ flat, 
(b) On the pianoforte, with reference to any 
given key, the key next below or to the left. 
The black keys are often called sharps anil flats, because 
always named by reference to neighboring white keys, tint 
B and E are also called C flat and F flat respectively, (c) 
In musical notation, the character b, which when 
attached to a note or to a staff-degree lowers 
its significance one half -step. See li rotvndum, 
under li. 8. In ship-building, formerly, one of 
the midship timbers. 9. In theaters, one of 
the halves of such scenes or parts of scenes as 
are formed by two equal parts pushed from the 
sides of the stage and meeting in the center. 
10. In mining, in the lead-mining districts of 
the north of England, a lateral branching of the 
vein, which gives rise to a deposit, as of ore, in 
flat masses. The excavations in these are sometimes 
several yards in breadth, ami they are not unfrequently 
connected with caverns, the sides of which are incrusted 
with beautiful crystallizations of the veinstones peculiar 
to that region. Deposits of ore lying horizontally or near- 
ly so are also, in other mining districts, called flats. This 
is the case in Denbighshire, Wales, and also in Cornwall, 
where the flat parts of the ' ' pipes "and " carbona " are of- 
ten designated as flats. 
11. A surface of size put over gilding. 12. A 
continuum of any number of dimensions hav- 
ing no curvature: such are a straight line, a 
plane, and Euclidean space. 13f. Flat oppo- 
sition or contradiction; a point-blank assertion 
or denial. 
He thought with banding brave to keepe the coyle, 
Or else with flatts and facings mee to foil. 
Mir. for Mags. 
Deck-flat (iiaut.), a platform or deck of iron or steel, 
either water-tight or not, but not a complete deck. 
Double flat, in music: (a) A tone two half-steps lower 
than a given tone ; the flat of a flat, (b) On the piano- 
forte, a key next but one below or to the left of a given 
key. (c) The character bv, which when attached to a note 
or to a staff-degree lowers its significance two half-steps. 
flat 1 (flat), v. ; pret. and pp. flatted, ppr. flatting, 
[(.flatl, a.] I. trans. If. To make flat; level 
or bring to a level ; lay even ; make smooth ; 
flatten. 
Then frothy white appear the flatted seas, 
And change their colour, changing their disease. 
Dryden, Ceyx and Alcyone, 1. 131. 
A Face too long shou'd part and flat the Hair. 
Congreve, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love. 
2f. To level with the ground ; overthrow. 
Like a Phcebean champion, she [Virtue] hath routed the 
army of her enemies, flatted their strongest forts. 
Feltham, Resolves, i. 4. 
3. To make vapid or tasteless. 
Otherwise fresh in their colour, but their juice somewhat 
flatted. Bacon, Nat. Hist. 
It may be apprehended that the retrenchment of these 
pleasant liberties may flat and dead the taste of conver- 
sation. W. Montague, Devoute Essays, I. xii. 3. 
It mortifies the body, and/tote the pleasure of the senses. 
Glanville, Sermons, p. 279. 
4. In music, to depress (a tone); specifically, 
to apply a flat to (a note or staff -degree) that 
is, to depress it a half -step. Also flatten. 5. 
To decorate or paint with colors ground in lin- 
seed-oil, and thinned for use with turpentine. 
The turpentine kills the gloss of the oil, and 
the resulting surface appears dull or flat. 
A frieze of massive carton piei're, supporting trusses at 
intervals, is flatted in tones of fawn color and buff. 
Beck's Jour. Dec. Art, II. 343. 
To flat in the sail (naut.), to draw iu the aftmost clue 
of a sail toward the middle of the ship. 
II. intrans. If. To become flat; fall to an 
even surface. 
Observed . . . the swelling to flat yet more. 
Sir W. Temple. 
2. To become insipid, or dull and unanimated. 
3. In music, to sing or play below the true 
pitch. Also flatten. To flat out, to fail, as an un- 
dertaking, from weakness or bad management ; make a 
fiasco or complete failure, as one who miscalculates his re- 
sources or ability. [U. 8.1 
flat 1 (flat), a*. [< t&E. flat; < flat, a.] 1. Flat- 
ly; so as to be flat or level. 2. Plainly; posi- 
tively. [Bare.] 
I am asham'd to feel how flat I am cheated. 
Fletcher, Spanish Curate, iv. 5. 
Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty. <?. Herbert. 
3. In music, below the true pitch Flat aft (nant.). 
See a/(l. To fall flat, to fail completely, usually in spite 
of strenuous efforts or great expectation ; not to succeed 
in attracting interest, purchasers, etc. : as. the book or the 
play/eH flat ; the shares fell flat on the market. To haul 
142 
2257 
the sheets flat aft (<'.), to make fore-and-aft sails lie 
like boards without protuberance by hauling on the sheets 
which extend them. 
flat'- 2 (flat), n. [Orig. a dial. (Sc.) form (in sim- 
ulation oiflaft, level, which is, in fact, the ult. 
original) of flet, a floor or story of a house, the 
interior of a house, a house: see fletl.] 1. A 
floor or story of a building. [Scotch.] Hence, 
in recent general use 2. A floor, or separate 
division of a floor, fitted for housekeeping and 
designed to be occupied by a single family ; an 
apartment. Compare apartment-house. 3. A 
building the various floors of which are fitted 
up as flats. 
This of course was before the period of the lofty flats 
which have familiarised us with mansions of a dozen sto- 
ries high. Fortnightly Ren., N. S., XL. 63. 
flat s t, v. [ME. flatten, dash, throw, < OF. fla- 
ter, flatir, throw or east down, dash, intr. fall, 
dash.] I. trans. To dash or throw. 
Ryjt with that he swouued, 
Til Vigilate the veille vette water at hus eyen, 
And flatte on hus face. Piers Plowman (C), viii. 58. 
II. intrans. To dash; rush. 
Thei were at greet myschief, for the saisnes were so 
many that thei moste flat in to the foreste wolde thei or 
noon, ffor as soone as the kynge Orienx was come, he kepte 
hem so shorte that many were deed and taken. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 275. 
flatt, . [ME., < OF. flat, a blow : see flats, ,,.] 
A blow. 
He gaff Richard a sorry flatt, 
That foundryd bacynet and hat. 
Richard Coer de Lion, 1. 5205. 
Swich a flat ! Arthour and Merlin, p. 182. (Halliwell.) 
flat 4 (flat), v. t. [< OF.flater, natter: see flat- 
to-2.] To flatter. [Scotch.] 
Plata (fla'tii), n. [NL., < L. flatus, pp. of flare 
= E. Stow 1 .] The typical genus of wax-produ- 
cing bugs, with semicircular wings, of the fam- 
ily Flatidw. F. limbata, an Indian species, is an ex- 
ample, of a grass-green color varied with bright red and 
pure white, and with wings expanding nearly two inches. 
flatbill (flat'bil), n. 1. A bird of the family 
Todidai: as, the green flatbill, Todus viridis. 
2. Some other flat-billed bird, as a flycatcher 
of the genus Plati/rhynehus. 
flatboat (flat'bot), re. A flat-bottomed boat 
of considerable size, roughly made of strong 
timbers, for floating merchandise, etc., down 
the Mississippi and other western rivers. Such 
boats were in early times the principal means of trans- 
portation by water, and are not yet entirely obsolete. 
At the end of the downward voyage they are broken up 
and their material is sold. [U. S.] 
About fifty years ago, Abraham Lincoln was poling a 
flat-boat on the Mississippi River. The American, VI. 40. 
Having a flat 
Flat-caps of the i6th century. 
flat-breasted (flafbres'ted), a. 
breast ; spe- 
cifically, in 
ornith., ratite ; 
not carinate : 
having no keel 
of the breast- 
bone. 
flat-capt (flaf- 
kap), n. A cap 
with a low flat 
crown. Especially (o) A city flat-cap. See city, a. 
Flat caps as proper are to city gowns 
As to armour helmets, or to kings their crowns. 
Dekker, Honest Whore, ii. 1. 
Howe says that, in the times of Mary and Elizabeth, 
" apprentices wore flat-caps, and others under threescore 
years of age, as well journeymen as masters, both at home 
and abroad, whom the pages of the court, in derision, 
called flat-caps." 
Gifford, Note to B. Jonson's Every Man iu his Humour, ii. 1. 
Hence (6) A person wearing such a cap. 
Wealthy flat-caps that pay for their pleasure the best 
of any men in Europe. Marston, Dutch Courtezan, ii. 1. 
(c) Less commonly, the toque worn by both men and women 
of the wealthier classes in the sixteenth century. 
flat-car (flat'kar), n. A railroad-car consisting 
of a platform without sides or top ; a platform- 
car. 
flat-clam (flat'klam), n. Semele decisa, an edi- 
ble species of clam. [California, TJ. S.] 
flate (flat), v. t. ; pret. and pp. flated, ppr. flat- 
ing. [< L. flatus, pp. of flare, breathe, blow, = E. 
6Z0I0 1 .] To produce with flatus, or with simple 
unintonated breath. [Bare.] 
flatfish (flat'fish), n. Any fish of the suborder 
Heterosomata : so called from the flattened bi- 
laterally unsymmetrical form. The body is great- 
ly compressed, and one side is colorless or whitish, while 
the other is dark and variously marked. The typical flat- 
fishes constitute the family Pleuronectidce, and include 
many species of great economic importance, as the halibut, 
turbot, plaice, sole, flounder, etc. A flatfish is not really 
flat (that is, depressed or flattened out horizontally), but 
is, on the contrary, thin (that is, extremely compressed 
flatly 
or vertii-iilly expanded), and has both eyes on one hide. 
not on top. It swims and lies with its eyeless and col- 
orless side downward, thus appearing as if spread out 
horizontally. 
flat-footed (flat'lnfed), . 1. Having fiat feet; 
having little or no hollow iu the sole, and a low 
arch in the instep. 2. Firm-footed; resolute. 
[Slang.] 
If Mr. should come out flal-fuot''ff. cull himself a 
dealer, instead of posing as an " art lecturer." 
The Aiii<'i'"'i<n. 
flathead (flat'hed), .and n. I. a. \. Having 
an artificially flattened head : applied to certain 
American Indians. The deformity is produced in in 
fancy by appliances causing pressure upon the skull from 
before backward (the more common method), making it 
flat and retreating in front and protuberant behind, or 
from above downward, making it flat at the top. It dis- 
appears partially or wholly with advance of age, and is 
said not to injure the intellect. The practice now survives 
chiefly in the northwest, but was formerly common over 
both North and South America. 
2. [cap.] Pertaining to the tribe of Indians 
specifically called Flatheads. See II., 1. 
II. n. 1. [cop.] One of a small tribe of Ameri- 
can Indians specifically so called, but errone- 
ously, their heads not being flattened, and their 
true name being Selish. The original home of the 
Flatheads was in the valley of the Columbia river, but a 
part of them now live on a reservation in northwestern 
Montana. They are all nominally Christianized and civ- 
ilized. 
2. A dipnoan fish, Ceratodusforsteri. [Austra- 
lia.] 3. A snake which flattens its head, as a 
species of Heterodon; the hog-nosed snake or 
puff-adder. [Local, U. S.] 
The blow-snake of Illinois is variously known in other 
localities as hog-nose, flat-head, viper, and puff-adder. 
Pop. Sci. Mo., XXXIII. 660. 
flat-headed (flat'hed"ed), a. Having a flat head 
or top. 
This [church] bears date 1477, as appears from an in- 
scription over one of its doors. But this doorway is flat- 
headed, and has lost all mediaeval character. 
E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 210. 
flat-house (flat'hous), w. [<flat 2 + 7iow.se.] A 
house containing a number of flats. [U. S.] 
flatid (flat'id), n. One of the Flatidoe. 
Flatida (flat'i-da), n.pl. [NL., < Plata + -rfa.] 
Same as Flatida;, considered as a subfamily of 
Fulgoridai. Also Flatides. 
Flatidse (flat'i-de), n.pl. [NL., < F lata + -ida>.] 
A family of homopterous hemipterous insects, 
of great extent and extreme variety and exuber- 
ance of form and coloration. The head is narrow, 
the prothorax produced and narrowed, and the exposed 
part of the metathorax relatively large and generally tri- 
angular; the wing-covers are large, obtriangular or lyrate, 
with a broad costal margin. Some of these insects secrete 
the substance called Chinese wax. 
flatilet, a. [< Ij.flatilis, (flare, ^.flatus, blow, 
= E. blmc 1 : see flatus.] Inconstant; veering 
with the wind. Scott. 
flat-iron (flat'i"ern), . An iron for smoothing 
cloth. It is made very hot and then passed quickly 
and firmly over the dampened surface of the fabric to be 
smoothed. Also sad-iron, or simply iron. 
flativet (fla'tiv), a. [< L. flatus, pp. of flare = 
E. W0J01.] Producing wind ; flatulent, 
flatting (flat'ling), adv. [< MS.flatlyng; <flafl 
+ -ling 2 ; cf. darkling, hackling, headlonq, etc.] 
With the flat side ; flatwise ; flatly. [Obsolete 
or provincial.] 
And to hys chaumbur can he gone 
And leyde hyni flatlyng on the gronnde. 
MS. Cantab. Ff. ii. 38, f. 99. (Hallimll.) 
With her sword on him she flatting strooke, 
In signe of true subjection to her powre. 
Spenser, F. Q., V. v. 18. 
Of the Sun's stops, it Colure hath to name, 
Because his Teem doth seem to trot more tame 
On these cut points ; for, heere he doth not ride 
Flatting a-long, but vp the Sphears steep side. 
Sylvester, tr. of I>u Bartas's Weeks, ii., The Columnes. 
flattings (flat'lingz), adr. 1. Scotch form of 
flatting. 
The blade struck me flattings. Scott. 
2. Plainly; peremptorily. [Prov. Eng.] 
flatlong (flat'long), adv. [Var. of flatting, as if 
<flatl + femj/l.] With the flat side downward ; 
not edgewise. 
The pitiless sword had such pity of so precious an ob- 
ject that at first it did but hit flatlony. 
Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, Hi. 
Ant. What a blow was there given ! 
Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long. 
Shak., Tempest, ii. 1. 
Zenas Joy, since words were otit of the question, ad- 
ministered a corporeal admonition with his sword flat- 
long. S. Judd, Margaret, i. 16. 
flatly (flat'li), adv. In a flat manner, (n) With a 
flat surface or in a flat position ; evenly ; horizontally. 
At his look she flatty falleth down, 
For looks kill love. 
Shak., Venus and Adonis. 1. 483. 
