| spastic flat foot | Eversion of the foot with spasm of the muscles (peroneal) on the outer side; often associated with abnormal bars of bone cartilage or fibrous tissue between the calcaneum and the navicular (scaphoid) or between the navicular and the talus, resulting in a tarsal coalition. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| optical flat | <microscopy> Usually, a glass or quartz plate or disk, the thickness of which should be at least 1/10 of its diameter. It is ground until any remaining unevenness can be measured only by interferometric methods. Their maximum departure from flatness usually is less than 1/10 of the sodium doublet (589.3 nm). (05 Aug 1998) |
| flat | 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. 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. Below the true pitch; hence, as applied to intervals, minor, or lower by a half step; as, a flat seventh; A flat. Not sharp or shrill; not acute; as, a flat sound. 9. Sonant; vocal; applied to any one of the sonant or vocal consonants, as distinguished from a nonsonant (or sharp) consonant. Flat arch. <geometry> A coat of water colour of one uniform shade. To fall flat, 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) Origin: Akin to Icel. Flatr, Sw. Flat, Dan. Flad, OHG. Flaz, and AS. Flet floor, G. Flotz stratum, layer. 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 flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught. A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned. <machinery> A car without a roof, the body of which is a platform without sides; a platform car. 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. A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself. 6. <chemical> A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal. 7. A dull fellow; a simpleton; a numskull. "Or if you can not make a speech, Because you are a flat." (Holmes) 8. A character [<flat/] before a note, indicating a tone which is a half step or semitone lower. 9. <geometry> A homaloid space or extension. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| flat affect | The absence of or diminution in the amount of emotional tone or outward emotional reaction typically shown by others or oneself under similar circumstances; a milder form is termed blunted affect. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat bone | A type of bone characterised by its thin, flattened shape, such as the scapula or certain of the cranial bones. Synonym: os planum. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat chest | A chest in which the anteroposterior diameter is shorter than the average. Synonym: alar chest, pterygoid chest. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat condyloma | <tumour> A condyloma of the uterine cervix or other site caused by human papilloma virus infection and characterised histologically by koilocytosis without papillomatosis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat feet | All babies have flat feet because their arches are not yet built up (anf their feet tend to be plump). (12 Dec 1998) |
| flat flap | A flap in which during transfer the pedicle is left flat or open, i.e., untubed. Synonym: open flap. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat hand | Loss of normal arches of the hand. Synonym: flat hand. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat papular syphilid | Eruption of flattened, dull reddish papules, 5 mm to 1 cm in diameter, occurring in secondary syphilis. Synonym: flat papular syphilid. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat pelvis | A pelvis in which the anteroposterior diameter is uniformly contracted, the sacrum being dislocated forward between the iliac bones. Synonym: pelvis plana. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat plate | Jargon for plain film. (05 Mar 2000) |
| flat revertant | <cell biology> Variant of a malignant transformed animal tissue cell in which the characteristic high saturation density and piled up morphology have reverted to the flatter morphology associated with nontransformed cells. (18 Nov 1997) |
| flat top waves | Activity in the electroencephalogram having a pattern suggesting a flat top; these wave's are often found in temporal lobe discharges. (05 Mar 2000) |