1. Footwear (shoes or slippers) with no heel (or a very low heel)
   "She wore comfortable flats for the long day of sightseeing"

1. [Brit] A suite of rooms usually on one floor of an apartment house
   "They rented a two-bedroom flat in the city centre";
   - apartment
    
2. A level tract of land
   "the salt flats of Utah"
    
3. A musical notation indicating one half step lower than the note named
   "The piece modulated to a key with two flats"
    
4. Scenery consisting of a wooden frame covered with painted canvas; part of a stage setting
   "The stagehands quickly changed the flats between scenes"
    
5. A shallow box in which seedlings are started
   "The gardener planted tomato seeds in flats for later transplanting"
    
6. [N. Amer] Freight car without permanent sides or roof
   "They loaded lumber onto the flat";
   - flatcar [N. Amer], flatbed
    
7. [N. Amer] A deflated pneumatic tire
   "They had to change the flat tire on the side of the highway"; "He had to change the flat tyre on the side of the road";
   - flat tire [N. Amer], flat tyre [Brit], puncture

1. [Austral, NZ] Live in or share an apartment
   "They've been flatting together since university"
    
2. (music) lower a note's pitch by a semitone
   "The conductor asked the violinists to flat the B in measure 16"

Derived forms: flatses

Type of: box, champaign [archaic], field, flatland, footgear, footwear, freight car, housing, living accommodations, lodging, musical notation, plain, pneumatic tire [N. Amer], pneumatic tyre [Brit], scene, scenery

Part of: apartment building, apartment house, mise en scène, setting, stage setting

Encyclopedia: Flats, West Virginia