Flatten /(flăt"t'n)/

Flat·ten

Flatten

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Flattened; p. pr. & vb. n. Flattening

  1. To reduce to an even surface or one approaching evenness; to make flat; to level; to make plane.
  2. To throw down; to bring to the ground; to prostrate; hence, to depress; to deject; to dispirit.
  3. To make vapid or insipid; to render stale.
  4. To lower the pitch of; to cause to sound less sharp; to let fall from the pitch. (Mus.)

Phrases & Compounds
To flatten a sail
to set it more nearly fore-and-aft of the vessel.
Flattening oven
in glass making, a heated chamber in which split glass cylinders are flattened for window glass.

Flatten

v. i.
  1. To become or grow flat, even, depressed, dull, vapid, spiritless, or depressed below pitch.