Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FLAT-BOT-TOM-ED, a.

Having a flat bottom, as a boat, or a moat in fortification.

FLAT'-IRON, n.

An iron for smoothing cloth.

FLA'TIVE, a. [L. flatus, from flo, to blow.]

Producing wind; flatulent. [Not in use.] Brewer.

FLAT'LONG, adv.

With the flat side downward; not edgewise. Shak.

FLAT'LY, adv.

1. Horizontally; without inclination.
2. Evenly; without elevations and depressions.
3. Without spirit; dully; frigidly.
4. Peremptorily; positively; downright. He flatly refused his aid. Sidney.

FLAT'NESS, n.

1. Evenness of surface; levelness; equality of surface.
2. Want of relief or prominence; as, the flatness of a figure is sculpture. Addison
3. Deadness; vapidness; insipidity; as, the flatness of cider or beer. Mortimer.
4. Dejection of fortune; low state. The flatness of my misery. Shak.
5. Dejection of mind; a low state of the spirits; depression; want of life. Collier.
6. Dullness; want of point; insipidity; frigidity. Some of Homer's translators have swelled into fustian, and others sunk into flatness. Pope.
7. Gravity of sound, as opposed to sharpness, acuteness or shrillness. Flatness of sound – joined with a harshness. Bacon.

FLAT'-NOS-ED, a.

Having a flat nose. Burton.

FLAT'-ROOF-ED, a.

Having a flat roof.

FLAT'TED, pp.

Made flat; rendered even on the surface; also, rendered vapid or insipid.

FLAT'TEN, v.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.

FLAT'TEN, v.t. [flat'n; Fr. flatir, from flat.]

1. To make flat; to reduce to an equal or even surface; to level.
2. To beat down to the ground; to lay flat. Mortimer.
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-ING, ppr.

Making flat.

FLAT'TER, n.

The person or thing by which any thing is flattened.

FLAT'TER, v.t. [Fr. flatter; D. vleijen; Teut. fletsen; Ice. fladra; Dan. flatterer. In Ir. bladaire is a flatterer; bleid, a wheedling; blaith is plain, smooth; and blath is praise. Flatter may be from the root of flat, that is, to make smooth, to appease, to soothe; but the Ir. blath, would seem to be connected with L. plaudo. Perhaps flat and plaudo are from one root, the radical sense of which must be to extend, strain, stretch.]

1. To soothe by praise; to gratify self-love by praise or obsequiousness; to please a person by applause or favorable notice, by respectful attention, or by any thing that exalts him in his own estimation, or confirms his good opinion of himself. We flatter a woman when we praise her children. A man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet. Prov. xxix.
2. To please; to gratify; as, to flatter one's vanity or pride.
3. To praise falsely; to encourage by favorable notice; as, to flatter vices or crimes.
4. To encourage by favorable representations or indications; as, to flatter hopes. We are flattered with the prospect of peace.
5. To raise false hopes by representations not well founded; as, to flatter one with a prospect of success; to flatter a patient with the expectation of recovery when his case is desperate.
6. To please; to soothe. A concert of voices – makes a harmony that flatters the ears . Dryden.
7. To wheedle; to coax; to attempt to win by blandishments, praise or enticements. How many young and credulous persons are flattered out of their innocence and their property, by seducing arts!

FLAT'TER-ED, pp.

Soothed by praise; pleased by commendation; gratified with hopes, false or well founded; wheedled.

FLAT'TER-ER, n.

One who flatters; a fawner; a wheedler; one who praises another with a view to please him, to gain his favor, or to accomplish some purpose. When I tell him he hates flatterers, / He says he does; being then most flattered. – Shak. The most abject flatterers degenerate into the greatest tyrants. – Addison.

FLAT'TER-ING, ppr.

1. Gratifying with praise; pleasing by applause; wheedling; coaxing.
2. adj. Pleasing to pride or vanity; gratifying to self-love; as, a flattering eulogy. The minister gives a flattering account of his reception at court.
3. Pleasing; favorable; encouraging hope. We have a flattering prospect of an abundant harvest. The symptoms of the disease are flattering.
4. Practicing adulation; uttering false praise; as, a flattering tongue.

FLAT'TER-ING-LY, adv.

1. In a flattering manner; in a manner to flatter.
2. In a manner to favor; with partiality. – Cumberland.

FLAT'TER-Y, n. [Fr. flatterie.]

1. False praise; commendation bestowed for the purpose of gaining favor and influence, or to accomplish some purpose. Direct flattery consists in praising a person himself; indirect flattery consists in praising a person through his works or his connections. Simple pride for flattery makes demands. – Pope. Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. – Rambler.
2. Adulation; obsequiousness; wheedling. – Rowe.
3. Just commendation which gratifies self-love.

FLAT'TING, n.

A method of preserving unburnished gilding, by touching it with size. Knowles.

FLAT'TISH, a. [from flat.]

Somewhat flat; approaching to flatness. – Woodward.

FLAT'U-LENCE, or FLAT'U-LEN-CY, n. [See Flatulent.]

1. Windiness in the stomach; air generated in a weak stomach and intestines by imperfect digestion, occasioning distension, uneasiness, pain, and often belchings. – Encyc.
2. Airiness; emptiness; vanity. Glanville.

FLAT'U-LENT, a. [L. flatulentus, flatus, from flo, to blow.]

1. Windy; affected with air generated in the stomach and intestines.
2. Turgid with air; windy; as, a flatulent tumor. Quincy.
3. Generating or apt to generate wind in the stomach. Pease are a flatulent vegetable. Arbuthnot.
4. Empty; vain; big without substance or reality; puffy; as, a flatulent writer; flatulent vanity. Dryden. Glanville.

FLAT'U-LENT-LY, adv.

In a windy manner; emptily.

FLAT-U-OS'I-TY, n.

Windiness; fullness of sir; flatulence. [Not used.] Bacon.