subs. (colloquial).—1. A greenhorn; noddy; gull. For synonyms, see BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD; also SAMMY-SOFT.
1762. GOLDSMITH, The Life of Beau Nash, in wks. p. 546 (Globe). ‘Why, if you think me a dab, as you call it, I will get this strange gentleman, or this’ (pointing to the FLAT). ‘Done!’ cries the Sailor, ‘but you shall not tell him.’
1789. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out for FLATS, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 59.
| Poor Johnny Raw! what madness could impel | |
| So rum a FLAT to face so prime a Swell? |
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Misadventures at Margate.’
| He’s been upon the mill, | |
| And cos he gammons all the FLATS we calls him Veepin Bill. |
1841. BULWER-LYTTON, Night and Morning, bk. II., ch. ix. ‘Did he pay you for her?’ ‘Why, to be sure, he gave me a cheque on Coutt’s.’ ‘And you took it? My eyes? what a FLAT.’
1847. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-tree. He play, the young FLAT!
1847. Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148, ‘An Address on the Opening of a Casino.’
| It mayn’t precisely please the moral FLAT— | |
| You won’t find fault with it, kind friends, for that. |
1848. THACKERAY, The Book of Snobs, ch. x. When he does play he always contrives to get hold of a good FLAT.
1857. DUCANGE ANGLICUS, pseud. The Vulgar Tongue, p. 39. Fawney droppers gammon the FLATS and take the yokels in.
1866. YATES, Black Sheep, I., p. 70. The genius which had hitherto been confined to bridging a pack of cards, or ‘securing’ a die, talking over a FLAT, or winning money of a greenhorn.
1880. M. COLLINS, Thoughts in My Garden, vol. II., p. 180. Their quack medicines that will cure everything, and their sales of invaluable articles at a loss, and a thousand other devices to catch FLATS.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Good-Night. You FLATS and joskins great and small.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 21 Sept., p. 3, col. 1 (In a London Gambling Hell). The FLATS who play faro (Cross-heading).
2. (American thieves’).—An honest man.
3. (American).—A lover’s dismissal; a jilting.
Adj. (colloquial and literary).—Downright; plain; straightforward; as in THAT’S FLAT? a FLAT LIE, “FLAT BURGLARY,” etc.
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., i. 3. Wor.: You start away, And lend no ear to my purposes. Those prisoners you shall keep. Hot.: Nay, I will; THAT’S FLAT.
1835–40. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, p. 6, preface (ed. 1862).
1848. J. R. LOWELL, A Fable for Critics, p. 19. (A fetch, I must say, most transparent and FLAT).
[There are other usages, more or less colloquial: e.g., Insipid; tame; dull: as in Macaulay’s “FLAT as champagne in decanters.” On the stock exchange, FLAT = without interest: Stock is borrowed FLAT when no interest is allowed by the lender as security for the due return of the scrip.]
Verb (American).—To jilt. Cf., subs., sense 3. For synonyms, see MITTEN.
1871. DE VERE, Americanisms, p. 602. TO FLAT, in the West, means to jilt, and is probably derived from another slang phrase, ‘to feel flat,’ denoting the depression which is apt to follow such a disappointment.
TO FEEL FLAT, verb. phr. (American).—1. To be low-spirited; out of sorts; OFF COLOUR (q.v.).
1838. J. C. NEAL, Charcoal Sketches, ‘Undeveloped Genius.’ Not to hurt a gentleman’s feelings, and to make him FEEL FLAT afore the company.
2. (American).—To fail; to give way. Also used substantively.
