FLATTERING

flattering

(adjective) showing or representing to advantage; “a flattering color”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Adjective

flattering (comparative more flattering, superlative most flattering)

Attractive or good-looking; that makes one look good

Synonym: becoming

Antonyms: unbecoming, unflattering

Verb

flattering

present participle of flatter

Noun

flattering (plural flatterings)

The action of the verb to flatter.

Instances of flattery.

Synonyms

• flattery

• soft sawder

Source: Wiktionary

Flat"ter*ing, a.

Definition: That flatters (in the various senses of the verb); as, a flattering speech. Lay not that flattering unction to your soul. Shak. A flattering painter, who made it his care, To draw men as they ought be, not as they are. Goldsmith.

FLATTER

Flat"ter, n.

1. One who, or that which, makes flat or flattens.

2. (Metal Working) (a) A flat-faced fulling hammer. (b) A drawplate with a narrow, rectangular orifice, for drawing flat strips, as watch springs, etc.

Flat"ter, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flattered; p. pr. & vb. n. Flattering.] Etym: [OE. flateren, cf. OD. flatteren; akin to G. flattern to flutter, Icel. fla to fawn, flatter: cf. F. flatter. Cf. Flitter, Flutter, Flattery.]

1. To treat with praise or blandishments; to gratify or attempt to gratify the self-love or vanity of, esp. by artful and interested commendation or attentions; to blandish; to cajole; to wheedle. When I tell him he hates flatterers, He says he does, being then most flattered. Shak. A man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet. Prov. xxix. 5. Others he flattered by asking their advice. Prescott.

2. To raise hopes in; to encourage or favorable, but sometimes unfounded or deceitful, representations.

3. To portray too favorably; to give a too favorable idea of; as, his portrait flatters him.

Flat"ter, v. i.

Definition: To use flattery or insincere praise. If it may stand him more in stead to lie, Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or adjure. Milton.

FLAT

Flat, a. [Compar. Flatter; superl. Flattest.] Etym: [Akin to Icel. flatr, Sw. flat, Dan. flad, OHG. flaz, and AS. flet floor, G. flötz stratum, layer.]

1. Having an even and horizontal surface, or nearly so, without prominences or depressions; level without inclination; plane. Though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. Milton.

2. Lying at full length, or spread out, upon the ground; level with the ground or earth; prostrate; as, to lie flat on the ground; hence, fallen; laid low; ruined; destroyed. What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat! Milton. I feel . . . my hopes all flat. Milton.

3. (Fine Arts)

Definition: Wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest. A large part of the work is, to me, very flat. Coleridge.

4. Tasteless; stale; vapid; insipid; dead; as, fruit or drink flat to the taste.

5. Unanimated; dull; uninteresting; without point or spirit; monotonous; as, a flat speech or composition. How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world. Shak.

6. Lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull; as, the market is flat.

7. Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright. Flat burglary as ever was committed. Shak. A great tobacco taker too, -- that's flat. Marston.

8. (Mus.) (a) Below the true pitch; hence, as applied to intervals, minor, or lower by a half step; as, a flat seventh; A flat. (b) Not sharp or shrill; not acute; as, a flat sound.

9. (Phonetics)

Definition: Sonant; vocal; -- applied to any one of the sonant or vocal consonants, as distinguished from a nonsonant (or sharp) consonant. Flat arch. (Arch.) See under Arch, n., 2. (b).

– Flat cap, cap paper, not folded. See under Paper.

– Flat chasing, in fine art metal working, a mode of ornamenting silverware, etc., producing figures by dots and lines made with a punching tool. Knight.

– Flat chisel, a sculptor's chisel for smoothing.

– Flat file, a file wider than its thickness, and of rectangular section. See File.

– Flat nail, a small, sharp-pointed, wrought nail, with a flat, thin head, larger than a tack. Knight.

– Flat paper, paper which has not been folded.

– Flat rail, a railroad rail consisting of a simple flat bar spiked to a longitudinal sleeper.

– Flat rods (Mining), horizontal or inclined connecting rods, for transmitting motion to pump rods at a distance. Raymond.

– Flat rope, a rope made by plaiting instead of twisting; gasket; sennit.

Note: Some flat hoisting ropes, as for mining shafts, are made by sewing together a number of ropes, making a wide, flat band. Knight.

– Flat space. (Geom.) See Euclidian space.

– Flat stitch, the process of wood engraving. [Obs.] -- Flat tint (Painting), a coat of water color of one uniform shade.

– To fall flat (Fig.), to produce no effect; to fail in the intended effect; as, his speech fell flat. Of all who fell by saber or by shot, Not one fell half so flat as Walter Scott. Lord Erskine.

Flat, adv.

1. In a flat manner; directly; flatly. Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty. Herbert.

2. (Stock Exchange)

Definition: Without allowance for accrued interest. [Broker's Cant]

Flat, n.

1. A level surface, without elevation, relief, or prominences; an extended plain; specifically, in the United States, a level tract along the along the banks of a river; as, the Mohawk Flats. Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat. Bacon.

2. A level tract lying at little depth below the surface of water, or alternately covered and left bare by the tide; a shoal; a shallow; a strand. Half my power, this night Passing these flats, are taken by the tide. Shak.

3. Something broad and flat in form; as: (a) A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught. (b) A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned. (c) (Railroad Mach.) A car without a roof, the body of which is a platform without sides; a platform car. (d) A platform on wheel, upon which emblematic designs, etc., are carried in processions.

4. The flat part, or side, of anything; as, the broad side of a blade, as distinguished from its edge.

5. (Arch.)

Definition: A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself.

6. (Mining)

Definition: A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal. Raymond.

7. A dull fellow; a simpleton; a numskull. [Colloq.] Or if you can not make a speech, Because you are a flat. Holmes.

8. (Mus.)

Definition: A character [] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower.

9. (Geom.)

Definition: A homaloid space or extension.

Flat, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Flatted; p. pr. & vb. n. Flatting.]

1. To make flat; to flatten; to level.

2. To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress. Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted. Barrow.

3. To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.

Flat, v. i.

1. To become flat, or flattened; to sink or fal to an even surface. Sir W. Temple.

2. (Mus.)

Definition: To fall form the pitch. To flat out, to fail from a promising beginning; to make a bad ending; to disappoint expectations. [Colloq.]

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition