[Alteration of FLET, influenced by FLAT a. and sb.3 The word was until recently peculiar to Scotland, where the original form survived into the present century.]
1. A floor or story in a house.
1801. A. Ranken, Hist. France, I. 442. In cities, the walls of the houses were generally a foot and a half thick, and the houses consisted of several flats, or stories.
1827. Ann. Reg., 143/1. The chimney of a tenement consisting of three flats, and inhabited by several families, suddenly fell with a tremendous crash, some of the stones passing through the roof and the several floors.
1861. Morning Post, 27 Nov. The numerous family … in the fourth flat.
1887. Times, 27 Aug., 11/3. A fire broke out in a flat of the mill.
2. A suite of rooms on one floor, forming a complete residence. First, second, etc. flat: a suite on the first, second, etc. floor.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, v. What was it to him if we chose to imitate some of the conveniences or luxuries of an English dwelling-house, instead of living piled up above each other in flats?
1845. Mrs. Johnstone, Edin. Tales, I. 267/2. That comfortable, airy, roomy, first-flat, consisting of dining-room, parlour, three bed-rooms, cellar in the area, and right to the common green.
1887. Miss Braddon, Like & Unlike, II. iv. The rents of these flats seem to be extortionate.
3. attrib. and Comb., as flat-house, -law, flat-builder, -dweller, -holder.
1889. Pall Mall G., 21 May, 6/3. The cunning way in which the flats are planned deserves study by all *flat-builders.
1894. Daily News, 4 Jan., 4/7. *Flat-dwellers and Hygiene.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 10 Feb., 2/2. The defencelessness of the *flat-holder has been found out.
1884. Times (weekly ed.), 12 Sept., 14/1. Enormous *‘flat’ houses.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 10 Feb., 2/2. She will settle a question of *flat-law.
