Part 186

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 building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself.

6. (Mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal. Raymond.

7. A dull fellow; a simpleton; a numskull. [Colloq.]

Or if you can not make a speech, Because you are a flat.

Holmes.

8. (Mus.) A character [] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.

9. (Geom.) A homaloid space or extension.

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"bill` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) Any bird of the genus Flatyrynchus. They belong to the family of flycatchers.

Flat"boat` (?), n. A boat with a flat bottom and square ends; -- used for the transportation of bulky freight, especially in shallow waters.

Flat"-bot`tomed (?), a. Having an even lower surface or bottom; as, a flat-bottomed boat.

Flat"-cap` (?), n. A kind of low- crowned cap formerly worn by all classes in England, and continued in London after disuse elsewhere; -- hence, a citizen of London. Marston.

Flat"fish` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) Any fish of the family PleuronectidÊ; esp., the winter flounder (Pleuronectes Americanus). The flatfishes have the body flattened, swim on the side, and have eyes on one side, as the flounder, turbot, and halibut. See Flounder.

Flat" foot` (?). (Med.) A foot in which the arch of the instep is flattened so that the entire sole of the foot rests upon the ground; also, the deformity, usually congential, exhibited by such a foot; splayfoot.

Flat"-foot`ed, a. 1. Having a flat foot, with little or no arch of the instep.

2. Firm-footed; determined. [Slang, U.S.]