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Webster 1913 Edition


Flatten

Flat′ten

(flăt′t’n)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Flattened
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Flattening
.]
[From
Flat
,
Adj.
]
1.
To reduce to an even surface or one approaching evenness; to make flat; to level; to make plane.
2.
To throw down; to bring to the ground; to prostrate; hence, to depress; to deject; to dispirit.
3.
To make vapid or insipid; to render stale.
4.
(Mus.)
To lower the pitch of; to cause to sound less sharp; to let fall from the pitch.
To flatten a sail
(Naut.)
,
to set it more nearly fore-and-aft of the vessel.
Flattening oven
,
in glass making, a heated chamber in which split glass cylinders are flattened for window glass.

Flat′ten

,
Verb.
I.
To become or grow flat, even, depressed, dull, vapid, spiritless, or depressed below pitch.

Webster 1828 Edition


Flatten

FLAT'TEN

,
Verb.
T.
flat'n.
1.
To make flat; to reduce to an equal or even surface; to level.
2.
To beat down to the ground; to lay flat.
3.
To make vapid or insipid; to render stale.
4.
To depress; to deject, as the spirits; to dispirit.
5.
In music, to reduce, as sound; to render less acute or sharp.

FLAT'TEN

,
Verb.
I.
flat'n.
1.
To grow or become even on the surface.
2.
To become dead, stale, vapid or tasteless.
3.
To become dull or spiritless.

Definition 2024


flatten

flatten

See also: flåtten

English

Verb

flatten (third-person singular simple present flattens, present participle flattening, simple past and past participle flattened)

  1. (transitive) To make something flat or flatter.
    As there was a lot of damage, we chose the heavy roller to flatten the pitch.
    Mary would flatten the dough before rolling it into pretzels.
  2. (reflexive) To press one's body tightly against a surface, such as a wall or floor, especially in order to avoid being seen or harmed.
    • 1994, Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus, ch. 2:
      With a bolt of fright he remembered that there was no bathroom in the Hob-house Room. He leapt along the corridor in a panic, stopping by the long-case clock at the end where he flattened himself against the wall.
  3. (transitive) To knock down or lay low.
    The prize fighter quickly flattened his challenger.
  4. (intransitive) To become flat or flatter; to plateau.
    Prices have flattened out.
  5. (intransitive) To be knocked down or laid low.
  6. (music) To lower by a semitone.
  7. To make vapid or insipid; to render stale.
  8. (programming, transitive) To reduce (a data structure) to one that has fewer dimensions, e.g. a 2×2 array into a list of four elements.
  9. (computer graphics, transitive) To combine (separate layers) into a single image.

Translations