flat tire
Americannoun
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a pneumatic tire that has lost all or most of its air through leakage, puncture, or the like.
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Older Slang. a dull or socially inept person.
Etymology
Origin of flat tire
First recorded in 1920–25
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And this was an especially good flat tire, because there were seven kids in the car-pool station wagon, and four of them started to cry—not Sam, of course.
From Literature
In 1967, Marta Becket, a professional ballet dancer from New York, serendipitously got a flat tire nearby and fell in love.
From Los Angeles Times
I don’t know if he’s out of gas, has a busted radiator, flat tires or is suffering from dementia.
From Salon
Last Thanksgiving, AAA responded to nearly 600,000 emergency roadside assistance calls for issues such as empty fuel tanks, dead batteries, and flat tires.
From Barron's
We also help each other out if anything goes wrong—a flat tire or something.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
