flatten
Americanverb
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(sometimes foll by out) to make or become flat or flatter
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informal (tr)
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to knock down or injure; prostrate
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to crush or subdue
failure will flatten his self-esteem
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Usual US word: flat. (tr) music to lower the pitch of (a note) by one chromatic semitone
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to manoeuvre an aircraft into horizontal flight, esp after a dive
Other Word Forms
- flattener noun
- overflatten verb (used with object)
- unflattened adjective
Etymology
Origin of flatten
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.
While the number of air passengers flying into nearby airports during ski season continued to rise at Vail, Aspen and Jackson Hole following the pandemic, they had flattened in Telluride.
The reality, oilwise, is that output there is huge but flattening, and big operators are focused on cash flow, not growth.
From Barron's
"If you think about taking a bowl of pizza dough and setting it spinning above your head, it flattens out," she explained.
From BBC
In the name of curiosity, people knocked down fences, flattened peppermint beds, even climbed in David’s windows.
From Literature
But that doesn’t necessarily flatten one more than the other.
From Salon
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.
