flat out
/ˌflæt ˈaʊt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.71 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see flat, out.
adj
Very busy.
adv
At top speed.
adv
Without hesitation or reservation, bluntly, no holds barred, totally, outright.
Example Sentences
- "So many of them took pictures, of themselves and of me, that we ran flat out of black-and-white film the second day out, and there wasn′t a Queen Mary necktie to be had in the shops after we left the port."
- "Avoid Flat-Out Opposites The slob vs. the neatnik. The artist vs. the precision-freak. The freethinker vs. the tightass. Liberal vs. conservative. Jock vs. nerd. David vs. Goliath. Good vs. evil. Beauty and the Beast. Jekyll^([sic]) and Hyde."
- "I put up with a lot from them: sexist and racist jokes, routine descriptions of masculinist sexploitation, flat-out ridicule for my feminist views."
- "I know we are all flat out. That is the way it is. We are flat out, and it becomes a way of life."
- "He [Riz Ahmed] duly leaves the way he came in: smiling, flat out, up against the clock."
- "flat out (like a lizard in the sun) - doing absolutely nothing"
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.
Inflected Forms
Phrases
flat out like a lizard drinking