1. Praise or compliment someone, esp. insincerely or to win favour
   "No matter how much the sisters tried to flatter their dad, he refused to buy any more tickets for rides";
   - blandish
    
2. Make someone feel proud by praising them, or feeding their vanity
   "He flattered her with compliments about her cooking"

1. Having a surface without slope, tilt in which no part is higher or lower than another
   "a flat desk"; "skirts sewn with fine flat seams";
   - level, plane
    
2. Horizontally level
   "a flat roof"
    
3. Having a relatively broad surface in relation to depth or thickness
   "flat computer monitors"
    
4. Lacking the expected range or depth; not designed to give an illusion or depth
   "a flat two-dimensional painting";
   - two-dimensional, 2-dimensional
    
5. Lacking stimulating characteristics; uninteresting
   "a flat joke";
   - bland
    
6. Lacking taste, flavour or tang
   "a flat diet";
   - bland, flavorless [US], flavourless [Brit, Cdn], insipid, savorless [US], savourless [Brit, Cdn], vapid
    
7. Having lost effervescence
   "flat beer"; "a flat cola"
    
8. (of a musical note) lowered in pitch by one chromatic semitone
   "B flat"
    
9. Sounded or spoken in a tone unvarying in pitch
   "the owl's faint flat hooting";
   - monotone, monotonic, monotonous
    
10. (photography) lacking contrast or shading between tones
    "The flat lighting made the portrait look dull"
     
11. Not reflecting light; not glossy
    "flat wall paint";
    - mat, matt, matte, matted
     
12. Stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
    "found himself lying flat on the floor";
    - prostrate
     
13. (biology) flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)
    "The compressed body of the flounder allows it to lie flat on the ocean floor"; "The flat leaves of the cactus help reduce water loss";
    - compressed
     
14. Not modified or restricted by reservations
    "a flat refusal";
    - categoric, categorical, unconditional
     
15. Commercially inactive
    "a flat market"; "flat sales for the month"; "prices remained flat"
     
16. [Brit] Drained of electric charge; discharged
    "a flat battery";
    - dead, drained

Derived forms: flattering, flattered, flatters

See also: dull, even, horizontal, inactive, multidimensional, noneffervescent, planar, tasteless, thin, two-dimensional, uncharged, unerect, unexciting, unmodulated, unqualified, unstimulating

Type of: praise

Antonym: contrasty [informal], natural, sharp

Encyclopedia: Flatter