Part 185

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

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

Flat arch. (Arch.) See under Arch, n., 2. (b). -- Flat cap, cap paper, not folded. See under Paper. -- Flat chasing, in fine art metal working, a mode of ornamenting silverware, etc., producing figures by dots and lines made with a punching tool. Knight. -- Flat chisel, a sculptor's chisel for smoothing. -- Flat file, a file wider than its thickness, and of rectangular section. See File. -- Flat nail, a small, sharp- pointed, wrought nail, with a flat, thin head, larger than a tack. Knight. -- Flat paper, paper which has not been folded. -- Flat rail, a railroad rail consisting of a simple flat bar spiked to a longitudinal sleeper. -- Flat rods (Mining), horizontal or inclined connecting rods, for transmitting motion to pump rods at a distance. Raymond. -- Flat rope, a rope made by plaiting instead of twisting; gasket; sennit. Some flat hoisting ropes, as for mining shafts, are made by sewing together a number of ropes, making a wide, flat band. Knight. -- Flat space. (Geom.) See Euclidian space. -- Flat stitch, the process of wood engraving. [Obs.] -- Flat tint (Painting), a coat of water color of one uniform shade. -- To fall flat (Fig.), 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.

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]

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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.