different between flat vs flash

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: fl?t, IPA^(key): /flæt/
• Rhymes: -æt

Etymology 1

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 *pleth?- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek ?????? (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit ?????? (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt.

Alternative forms

• flatt, flatte (both obsolete)

Adjective

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

1. Having no variations in height.
   1. In a horizontal line or plane; not sloping.

      a flat roof

   2. Smooth; having no protrusions, indentations or other surface irregularities, or relatively so.

      The surface of the mirror must be completely flat.

      The carpet isn't properly flat in that corner.

      She has quite a flat face.
   3. (slang) Having small or invisible breasts and/or buttocks.

2. Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.

   The exchange rate has been flat for several weeks.

   1. At a consistently depressed level; consistently lacklustre.

      Sales have been flat all year, and we've barely broken even.

   2. (not comparable, commerce) Of fees, fares etc., fixed; unvarying.

   3. (music, voice) Without variations in pitch.

      He delivered the speech in a flat tone.

   4. (of colours) Without variation in tone or hue; uniform.

      The walls were painted a flat gray.

3. (figuratively) Lacking liveliness or action; depressed; uninteresting; dull and boring.
   • February 16, 1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk

     A large part of the work is, to me, very flat.
   1. (authorship, figuratively, especially of a character) Lacking in depth, substance, or believability; underdeveloped; one-dimensional.

      Antonym: round

4. (music, note) Lowered by one semitone.
5. (music) Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.

6. Absolute; downright; peremptory.
   • c. 1598, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act IV, Scene 2,^[2]

     SECOND WATCH. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.

     DOGBERRY. Flat burglary as ever was committed

   • 1602, John Marston, Antonio and Mellida, Malone Society Reprint, 1921, Act I, lines 324-326,^[3]

     He is made like a tilting staffe; and lookes

     For all the world like an ore-rosted pigge:

     A great Tobacco taker too, thats flat.

7. (of a tire or other inflated object) Deflated, especially because of a puncture.
8. (of a carbonated drink) With all or most of its carbon dioxide having come out of solution so that the drink no longer fizzes or contains any bubbles.
9. (wine) Lacking acidity without being sweet.
10. (of a battery) Unable to emit power; dead.
11. (juggling, of a throw) Without spin; spinless.
12. (phonetics, dated, of a consonant) sonant; vocal, as distinguished from a sharp (non-sonant) consonant
13. (grammar) Not having an inflectional ending or sign, such as a noun used as an adjective, or an adjective as an adverb, without the addition of a formative suffix; or an infinitive without the sign "to".

14. (golf, of a golf club) Having a head at a very obtuse angle to the shaft.
15. (horticulture, of certain fruits) Flattening at the ends.
16. (of measurements of time) Exact.

    He finished the race in a flat four minutes.

Synonyms

• (having no variations in altitude): even, planar, plane, smooth, uniform
• (without variations in pitch): monotone
• (uninteresting): boring, dull, uninteresting; see also Thesaurus:boring
• (deflated): deflated, punctured
• (of a carbonated drink: no longer fizzes): still, unfizzy; see also Thesaurus:noneffervescent
• (of wine: lacking acidity): flabby

Antonyms

• (having no variations in altitude): bumpy, cratered, hilly (of terrain), rough (of a surface), wrinkled (of a surface)
• (music: lowered by one semitone): sharp
• (music: lower in pitch than it should be): sharp

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adverb

flat (comparative more flat, superlative most flat)

1. So as to be flat.

2. Bluntly.

3. (of accurately measured timings) Exactly, precisely.

   In the mile race, Smith's time was 3:58.56, and Brown's was four minutes flat.

4. (with units of time, distance, etc) Used to emphasize the smallness of the measurement.

5. Completely.

6. Directly; flatly.

   • Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty.

7. (finance, slang) Without allowance for accrued interest.

   The bonds are trading flat.

Synonyms

• (so as to be flat):
• (bluntly): bluntly, curtly
• (not exceeding): tops
• (completely): absolutely, completely, utterly

Translations

Noun

flat (plural flats)

1. An area of level ground.

   The hovercraft skimmed across the open flats.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Envy

     Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat.
   1. (in the phrase 'the flat') Level ground in general.

      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.

   2. (horse racing, with 'the' or attributively, sometimes with capital) Level horse-racing ground, as contrasted with courses incorporating jumps, or the racing done on such ground.

      This horse will do better over the flat.

      flat racing, the flat season

      • 2020, Brian Sheerin, Racing Post, "Gordon Elliott maps out summer Flat campaigns for talented jumpers" (article) [4]

        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.

      • 2021 (retrieved), racing365.com, "Flat Racing Explained" [5]

        In British horse racing, the classics are a series of horse races run over the flat (i.e. without jumps).

3. (music) A note played a semitone lower than a natural, denoted by the symbol ? placed after the letter representing the note (e.g., B?) or in front of the note symbol (e.g. ??).

   The key of E? has three flats.

4. (informal, automotive) A flat tyre/tire.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     The next one surrendered his bike, only for that, too, to give him a second flat as he started the descent.

5. (in the plural) A type of ladies' shoe with a very low heel.

6. (in the plural) A type of flat-soled running shoe without spikes.
7. (painting) A thin, broad brush used in oil and watercolour painting.
8. The flat part of something:
   1. (swordfighting) The flat side of a blade, as opposed to the sharp edge.
   2. The palm of the hand, with the adjacent part of the fingers.
9. A wide, shallow container or pallet.

10. (mail) A large mail piece measuring at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches, such as catalogs, magazines, and unfolded paper enclosed in large envelopes.
11. (rail transport, US) A railroad car without a roof, and whose body is a platform without sides; a platform car or flatcar.
12. A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
13. (geometry) A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.
14. A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
15. A flat sheet for use on a bed.
    • 1986, New York Magazine (volume 19, number 49, page 20)

      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.

16. (publishing) A flat, glossy children's book with few pages.
    • 1970, The Publishers Weekly (volume 197, page 85)

      This same publisher notes pricing is a crucial factor in the mass market field of $1, $1.95 and $2.95 "flats."

17. A platform on a wheel, upon which emblematic designs etc. are carried in processions.
18. (mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal.
19. (technical, theatre) A rectangular wooden structure covered with masonite, lauan, or muslin that depicts a building or other part of a scene, also called backcloth and backdrop.
20. (entomology) Any of various hesperiid butterflies that spread their wings open when they land.
21. (historical) An early kind of toy soldier having a flat design.
    • 2019, Luigi Toiati, The History of Toy Soldiers (page 78)

      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.

22. (obsolete) A dull fellow; a simpleton.
    • 1836, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., "The Music-Grinders":

      ... if you cannot make a speech,

      Because you are a flat,

      Go very quietly and drop

      A button in the hat!

    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 14:

      "He fancies he can play at billiards," said he. "I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-Tree. HE play, the young flat! ..."

23. Short for flat ride (“spinning amusement ride”).

Antonyms

• (note): sharp
• (shoes): high heels

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

flat (third-person singular simple present flats, present participle flatting, simple past and past participle flatted)

1. (poker slang) To make a flat call; to call without raising.
2. (intransitive) To become flat or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.
3. (intransitive, music, colloquial) To fall from the pitch.
4. (transitive, music) To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.
5. (transitive, dated) To make flat; to flatten; to level.
   • 1764, James Granger, M.D., The Sugar-Cane: a Poem. In Four Books. With Notes. Book 1, page 44, note to verse 605.

6. (transitive, dated) To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance (sermon)

     Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted.

Etymology 2

From 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 *flatj? (“floor”), from Proto-Germanic *flataz (“flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleth?- (“flat”). Akin to Old Frisian flet, flette (“dwelling, house”). More at flet, flat₁.

Noun

flat (plural flats)

2. (chiefly Britain, New England, New Zealand and Australia, archaic elsewhere) An apartment, usually on one level and usually consisting of more than one room.
   • 1905, Sydney Perks, Residential flats of all classes, including artisans' dwellings: a practical treatise on their planning and arrangement, together with chapters on their history, financial matters, etc.,with numerous illustrations, page 204,

     The excellence of French flats is so well known in America, that the owner will often refer to his property as "first class French flats."

   • 1983, Tai Ching Ling, Relocation and Population Planning: A Study of the Implications of Public Housing and Family Planning in Singapore, Wilfredo F. Arce, Gabriel C. Alvarez (editors), Population Change in Southeast Asia, page 184,

     Fifteen percent of this group said that they were not satisfied with the public housing estates and their HDB^{[Singapore Housing & Development Board]} flats (see Tables 11 and 12 respectively).

   • 2002, MIchael Ottley, Briefcase on Company Law, page 76,

     The Greater London Council formed the Estmanco company to manage a block of 60 council-owned flats. The council entered into an agreement with the company to sell off the flats to owner-occupiers.

   • 2014, Terry Gourvish, Dolphin Square: The History of a Unique Building, page 75,

     When the Dolphin Square's flats were first offered to the public in 1936, the South Block was still under construction, and the North Block was a building site.

Synonyms

• (apartment): apartment

Derived terms

• block of flats
• coldwater flat
• flatlet
• flatmate
• flatter

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English flatten, from Old French flatir (“to knock or strike down, dash”).

Verb

flat (third-person singular simple present flats, present participle flatting, simple past and past participle flatted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To beat or strike; pound
2. (transitive) To dash or throw
3. (intransitive) To dash, rush

Derived terms

• flatter (“hammer”)

References

Anagrams

• falt

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English flat.

Pronunciation

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /?fl?t/
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /?fl?t/
• (Hollandic)
• Hyphenation: flat
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

flat m (plural flats, diminutive flatje n)

1. flat, apartment
2. tower block

Derived terms

• galerijflat
• flatgebouw
• torenflat

Latin

Verb

flat

1. third-person singular present active indicative of fl?

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse flatr

Adjective

flat (neuter singular flatt, definite singular and plural flate, comparative flatere, indefinite superlative flatest, definite superlative flateste)

1. flat

Derived terms

• flatbrystet

References

• “flat” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse flatr

Adjective

flat (neuter singular flatt, definite singular and plural flate, comparative flatare, indefinite superlative flatast, definite superlative flataste)

1. flat

References

• “flat” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl??t/

Verb

fl?t

1. first/third-person singular preterite of fl?tan

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

flat m (genitive singular flat, plural flataichean)

1. saucer
2. flat, apartment

Mutation

Synonyms

• (saucer): sàsar

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse flatr, from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *plat- (“flat”).

Adjective

flat (comparative flatare, superlative flatast)

1. flat (having no variations in altitude)

   Solen reflekterades i spegelns flata yta.

   The sun was reflected in the flat surface of the mirror.

2. spineless, being a doormat, abstaining from defending one's convictions

   Han var alldeles för flat mot chefen, och fick inte heller någon löneökning.

   He let the manager walk all over him and did not get a raise.

Declension

Synonyms

• (flat): platt
• (spineless): eftergiven, mjäkig

Anagrams

• -falt, falt

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: fl?sh, IPA^(key): /flæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).

Verb

flash (third-person singular simple present flashes, present participle flashing, simple past and past participle flashed)

1. (transitive) To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.

2. (intransitive) To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
3. (intransitive) To be visible briefly.
4. (transitive) To make visible briefly.
5. (transitive, intransitive, informal) To briefly, and often unintentionally, expose one's naked body or underwear, or part of it, in public. (Contrast streak.)

6. (transitive, informal) To show or expose an "inappropriate" part of the body to someone for humorous reasons or as an act of contempt.
7. (figuratively) To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
8. To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.

9. To communicate quickly.

10. To move, or cause to move, suddenly.
11. (transitive) To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.

12. (intransitive, of liquid) To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
13. (transitive, climbing) To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
14. (transitive, computing) To write to the memory of (an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge).
15. (transitive, glassmaking) To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
16. (transitive, glassmaking) To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
17. (transitive) To send by some startling or sudden means.
18. (intransitive) To burst out into violence.
19. (juggling) To perform a flash.
20. (metallurgy) To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
21. (transitive, obsolete) To trick up in a showy manner.
22. (transitive, obsolete) To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed for W[illiam] Ponsonbie, OCLC 18024649, book II, canto VI, stanza XLII; republished as The Faerie Queene. By Edmund Spenser. With an Exact Collation of the Two Original Editions, Published by Himself at London in Quarto; the Former Containing the First Three Books Printed in 1590, and the Latter the Six Books in 1596. To which are Now Added, a New Life of the Author, and also a Glossary. Adorn'd with Thirty-two Copper-Plates, from the Original Drawings of the late W. Kent, Esq.; Architect and Principal Painter to His Majesty, volume I, London: Printed for J. Brindley, in New Bond-Street, and S. Wright, Clerk of His Majesty's Works, at Hampton-Court, 1751, OCLC 642577152, page 316:

      The varlet ?aw, when to the flood he came, / How without ?top or ?tay he fiercely lept, / And deep him?elfe beducked in the ?ame, / That in the lake his loftie cre?t was ?teept, / Ne of his ?afetie ?eemed care he kept, / But with his raging armes he rudely fla?hd / The waves about, and all his armour ?wept, / That all the bloud and filth away was wa?ht, / Yet ?till he bet the water, and the billows da?ht.

Synonyms

• (to briefly illuminate): glint
• (telephoning): beep

Derived terms

Related terms

• flush (possibly)

Translations

See also

• gleam
• (to expose one's naked body or underwear): wardrobe malfunction

Noun

flash (plural flashes)

1. A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.
2. A very short amount of time.
3. (colloquial, US) A flashlight; an electric torch.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, OCLC 747046957; republished London: Penguin Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-241-95628-1, page 34:

     I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car.

4. (figuratively) A sudden and brilliant burst, as of genius or wit.
5. Material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould.
6. (Britain, Cockney) The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.
8. (juggling) A pattern where each prop is thrown and caught only once.
9. (linguistics) A language, created by a minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class.
10. (photography) Clipping of camera flash (“a device used to produce a flash of artificial light to help illuminate a scene”).
11. (archaic) A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
12. (military) A form of military insignia.

13. (computing, uncountable) Clipping of flash memory.

14. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genera Artipe, Deudorix and Rapala.
15. A tattoo flash.
16. The sudden sensation of being "high" after taking a recreational drug.
    • 1973, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Proper and Improper Use of Drugs by Athletes: Hearings (page 645)

      A few seconds following the injection, the user experiences a sudden, intense generalized sensation which has both physiological and psychological characteristics. […] pure, commercially produced products do not give a good flash […]

    • 1976, Robert H. Coombs, Lincoln J. Fry, Patricia G. Lewis, Socialization in Drug Abuse (page 123)

      The flash — the odd combination of a cocoon-comfort and an inexplicable physical ascendency to a "high" — provides the major incentive for the new experimenter to move to the next phase of his career.

17. (dated) A newsflash.
    • 1931, George Seldes, Can These Things Be! (volume 25, page 274)

      The United Press got the flash "Germans declare martial law in Ruhr" […]

Synonyms

• (burst of light): gleam, glint
• (material left around the edge of a mould): moulding flash, molding flash

Antonyms

• (very short amount of time): aeon

Hypernyms

• (burst of light): light

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• glimmer
• shimmer
• sparkle
• twinkle

Adjective

flash (comparative more flash, superlative most flash)

1. (Britain and New Zealand, slang) Expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.
   • 1892, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Ironbark

     The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are,

     He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;

2. (Britain, of a person) Having plenty of ready money.
3. (Britain, of a person) Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
   • 1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 1:

     Bit of a flash git, don't you think?

4. (US, slang) Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
5. (slang, obsolete) Relating to thieves and vagabonds.

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “flash”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• For the sense ‘a short period of time’, the 1858 Notes and Queries of Martim de Albuquerque was consulted. From page 437 of the sixth volume of the second series, published in London by Bell & Dally, 186 Fleet Street, in 1858 :

  Ought we not to collect for posterity the various ways in which very short times are denoted. Besides the one at the head, there are, — in no time, in next to no time, in less than no time, in a trice, in a jiffy, in a brace of shakes, before you can say Jack Robinson, in a crack, in the squeezing of a lemon, in the doubling of your fist, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, in an instant, in a flash.

Etymology 2

From Middle English flasche, flaske; compare Old French flache, French flaque, which is of Germanic origin, akin to Middle Dutch vlacke (“an estuary, flats with stagnant pools”).

Noun

flash (plural flashes)

1. A pool.
   • a. 1646, Jeremiah Burroughs, The Excellency of Holy Courage in Evil Times

     their hearts lie lumpish as a Log that lies in a flash of water seven years together

2. (engineering) A reservoir and sluiceway beside a navigable stream, just above a shoal, so that the stream may pour in water as boats pass, and thus bear them over the shoal.

Derived terms

• flash wheel

Further reading

• flash on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• halfs

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English flash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fla?/

Noun

flash m (plural flashs)

1. flash (burst of light)
2. (photography) flash
3. newsflash
4. (juggling) flash

Derived terms

• flasher

Further reading

• “flash” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English flash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fla?/, [?fla?]

Noun

flash m (plural flashes)

1. (photography) flash