Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An apartment on one floor of a building.
  • noun Archaic A story in a house.
  • adjective Having a smooth, even surface: synonym: level.
  • adjective Having a relatively broad level surface in relation to thickness or depth.
  • adjective Being in horizontal position; lying down.
  • adjective Being without slope or curvature.
  • adjective Having a low heel or no heel.
  • adjective Free of qualification; absolute.
  • adjective Fixed; unvarying.
  • adjective Lacking interest or excitement; dull.
  • adjective Lacking in flavor.
  • adjective Having lost effervescence or sparkle.
  • adjective Deflated. Used of a tire.
  • adjective Electrically discharged. Used of a storage battery.
  • adjective Of or relating to a horizontal line that displays no ups or downs and signifies the absence of physiological activity.
  • adjective Of or relating to a hierarchy with relatively few tiers or levels.
  • adjective Commercially inactive; sluggish.
  • adjective Unmodulated; monotonous.
  • adjective Lacking variety in tint or shading; uniform.
  • adjective Not glossy; matte.
  • adjective Being below the correct pitch.
  • adjective Being one half step lower than the corresponding natural key.
  • adjective Designating the vowel a as pronounced in bad or cat.
  • adjective Nautical Taut. Used of a sail.
  • adverb Level with the ground; horizontally.
  • adverb On or up against a flat surface; at full length.
  • adverb So as to be flat.
  • adverb Directly; completely.
  • adverb Exactly; precisely.
  • adverb Music Below the intended pitch.
  • adverb Business Without interest charge.
  • noun A flat surface or part.
  • noun A stretch of level ground.
  • noun A shallow frame or box for seeds or seedlings.
  • noun A movable section of stage scenery, usually consisting of a wooden frame and a decorated panel of wood or cloth.
  • noun A flatcar.
  • noun A deflated tire.
  • noun A shoe with a flat heel.
  • noun A large flat piece of mail.
  • noun A horse that competes in a flat race.
  • noun A sign (♭) used to indicate that a note is to be lowered by a semitone.
  • noun A note that is lowered a semitone.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of Scots flet, inner part of a house, from Middle English, from Old English, floor, dwelling; see plat- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse flatr; see plat- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1795, alteration of Scots flet ("inner part of a house"), from Middle English flet ("dwelling"), from Old English flet, flett ("ground floor, dwelling"), from Proto-Germanic *flajan (“floor”), from Proto-Germanic *flataz (“flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“flat”). Akin to Old Frisian flet, flette "dwelling, house". More at flat1.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse flatr (Swedish flat, Danish flad), akin to German Flöz (geological layer), Ancient Greek πλατύς, Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रत्हस् ("extension").

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Examples

  • To summarize my previous comment, the LT data does not track surface temperature at all well – the LT temperature trend is essentially flat from ~1978 to ~1998, then there is the large 1998 El Nino spike and reversal, and then a ~0.2C step-up which has stayed ~flat for the most recent ~5 years.

    Trip Report « Climate Audit 2006

  • Now if, _at the present moment_, this skein were cut with a straight knife at right angles to its length, the cut end would represent the _time plane_ -- that is, the present moment of all -- and it would be the same for all providing that the time plane were flat _But is it really flat_?

    Four-Dimensional Vistas Claude Fayette Bragdon 1906

  • V. i.112 (241,5) [as fat and fulsome] [W: flat] _Fat_ means _dull_; so we say a _fatheaded_ fellow; _fat_ likewise means _gross_, and is sometimes used for _obscene_; and _fat_ is more congruent to _fulsome_ than _flat_.

    Notes to Shakespeare — Volume 01: Comedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • The term "flat tax" has "almost become a catchphrase for simplifying the tax code," Verenda Smith, senior manager of administration and policy for the Federation of Tax Administrators, cautioned.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Any exemptions, deductions, differential rates, or progressivity would, as a matter of linguistics, preclude the name flat tax.

    RETURN TO PROSPERITY Arthur B. Laffer 2010

  • (Art. Apartment House), the term flat “is usually in the United States restricted to apartments in houses having no elevator or hall service.

    Chapter 4. American and English Today. 2. Differences in Usage Henry Louis 1921

  • Usually the term flat tax refers to household income (and sometimes corporate profits) being taxed at one marginal rate, in contrast with progressive taxes that vary according to parameters such as income or usage levels.

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2010

  • Usually the term flat tax refers to household income (and sometimes corporate profits) being taxed at one marginal rate, in contrast with progressive taxes that vary according to parameters such as income or usage levels.

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2010

  • Usually the term flat tax refers to household income (and sometimes corporate profits) being taxed at one marginal rate, in contrast with progressive taxes that vary according to parameters such as income or usage levels.

    Propeller Most Popular Stories 2010

  • I use the term flat-earther for those who deny that the UK climate has changed over the past two centuries, and in particular since 1970.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED Mike Rivero 2010

  • This style of photography, objects shot from above, is known as the “flat lay”.

    What Is Lifestyle? Daisy Alioto 2023

Comments

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    January 12, 2013

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  • "An honest person, foolish." (Regency slang) per https://sites.google.com/site/regencymurdermystery/slang

    August 26, 2017