flat – English noun declension

English noun forms of flat

Noun: flat
Singularflat
Pluralflats

Sample Sentences

  • The hovercraft skimmed across the open flats.
  • the eastern end of the salt flat; mud flat, tidal flat, flood flat
  • Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat. [1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Envy”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:]
  • My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price. [1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:]
  • I can run on the flat but not up hills.
  • The going will be easier once we're through these mountains and onto the flat.
  • "Indeed it's troubling you too much, Sir!" the maid exclaimed. "She can walk very well on the flat." [1889, Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno:]
  • This horse will do better over the flat.
  • flat racing, the flat season
  • In light of Horse Racing Ireland's Covid-19 contingency plan announcement, that whenever racing resumes the Flat will be given priority, Elliott has decided to keep a number of talented jumpers on the go during the summer, with a view towards a dual-purpose campaign. [2020, Brian Sheerin, Racing Post, "Gordon Elliott maps out summer Flat campaigns for talented jumpers" (article) https://web.archive.org/web/20211102070751/https://www.racingpost.com/news/gordon-elliott-maps-out-summer-flat-campaigns-for-talented-jumpers/431475]
  • 2021 (retrieved), racing365.com, "Flat Racing Explained" https://racing365.com/flat-racing-explained/
  • In British horse racing, the classics are a series of horse races run over the flat (i.e. without jumps).
  • As forecast, Joe suspected nothing as he pottered round the flat in the sunshine, absorbed in the task of picking winners. [1963, George Blaikie, Scandals of Australia's Strange Past, Adelaide: Rigby Limited, page 117:]
  • The key of E♭ has three flats.
  • The next one surrendered his bike, only for that, too, to give him a second flat as he started the descent. [2012 July 15, Richard Williams, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track, Guardian Unlimited:]
  • She liked to walk in her flats more than in her high heels.
  • The outboard bales in each tier should be placed on their edges so that their flats will be presented to the sweat battens. This precaution is necessary to lessen the damage in case of chafage. If the bales chafe or become wet on their flats, only one or two layers will be damaged. [2024, Robert J. Meurn, Marine Cargo Operations:]
  • a flat of strawberries
  • In mild areas, start sowing seeds in pots and flats for later transplanting. [1978, Keith Vincent Smith, The Illustrated Earth Garden Herbal, Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia, page endpaper:]
  • Waiter: Would you like sparkling or flat? Guest: Flat, thank you.
  • For example, when trailers containing new automobiles were first piggybacked two areas of potential damage became evident: (1) diesel locomotive exhaust left a film of oil on the new autos; and (2) auto windshields could be scarred or cracked by the metal-tipped "tell-tales" which warn men atop trains of oncoming bridges or tunnels. Accordingly, automobiles aboard piggyback flats are usually coupled into the train 15 or more cars behind the locomotive; and telltales have been raised. [1960 November, David Morgan, “"Piggyback"—U.S. success story”, in Trains Illustrated, page 684:]
  • The tender roared along vibrating vigorously; braking had resulted in "flats" on most of its tyres. [1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 706:]
  • You might think that Americans buy roughly the same number of fitted sheets as flats. Or, considering the market for electric blankets, duvets, and other covers, that consumers buy even more bottom sheets, simply forgoing the tops. [1986, New York Magazine, volume 19, number 49, page 20:]
  • This same publisher notes pricing is a crucial factor in the mass market field of $1, $1.95 and $2.95 "flats." [1970, The Publishers Weekly, volume 197, page 85:]
  • Among the many US museums hosting flats, we may mention the Toy Soldier Museum in the Pocono Mountains, supervised by the historian, collector and dealer J. Hillestad. [2019, Luigi Toiati, The History of Toy Soldiers, page 78:]
  • […] if you cannot make a speech,
  • Because you are a flat,
  • Go very quietly and drop
  • A button in the hat! [1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Music-Grinders:]
  • "He fancies he can play at billiards," said he. "I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-Tree. HE play, the young flat! […]" [1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 14, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:]
  • “But,” said I, “you said the other day, that you liked the fair thing.” “That was by way of gammon,” said the landlord; “just, do you see, as a Parliament cove might say speechifying from a barrel to a set of flats, whom he means to sell. Come, what do you think of the plan?” [1851, George Borrow, Lavengro; the Scholar—the Gypsy—the Priest. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: John Murray […], →OCLC:]
  • "She can indeed walk very well on the flat," I said. "And I think I was the Flat." [1889, Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno:]
  • "When sampling the aperture of a telescope, using auto-collimating flats (ACFs) is more economical" [2013 April 1, Spechler et al., “Advanced Dispersed Fringe Sensing Algorithm for Coarse Phasing Segmented Mirror Telescopes”, in NASA Tech Briefs, retrieved 27 Dec 2021:]
  • He would slip in his six-ace flats, shaved dice that were made to bring up sevens. He'd throw them just long enough to get well, and then replace them with legitimate cubes. [2005, Fred Cicetti, Local Angles: The Big News in Small Towns, page 78:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Germanic *flataz
3. Old Norse flatrbor.
4. Middle English flat
5. English flat
6. From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt.
7. The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.
8. The algebraic sense was coined by Serre in a 1956 paper, originally as French plat. See: Middle English Nouns 'flat', Old Norse Nouns 'flatr', German Nouns 'Flöz', Middle English Nouns 'flat', French Nouns 'plat'.

Verbs referencing "flat"

Dutch Nouns flat, Portuguese Nouns flete, Irish Nouns lann, Swedish Nouns flata, Russian Nouns флэт.