flat chat

alternative flat-chat

1. Australiaidiomaticnot comparableAt maximum capability, intensity, or speed.

   We had the car going flat chat down the highway when the cops pulled us over.

   3 more examples

   If there was a radio we'd have it going flat-chat, boy.

   1987, Tim Winton, That Eye, The Sky, page 110

   I spun around yet again and took off flat chat.

   1998, John Marsden, The Night is for Hunting, unnumbered page

   I′m driving flat chat as I cross Green Gully, a nondescript depression in the wide flat plain of western New South Wales.

   2012, Chris Hammer, The River: A Journey Through the Murray-Darling Basin, page 166

alternative flat-chat

1. Australiaidiomaticnot comparableExtremely busy.

   Can you call me back tomorrow, mate? I′m flat chat at the moment.

   3 more examples

   “Look,” he went on, “I don′t even remember writing anything in the bloody diary, for Christ′s sake. I was flat chat at the time.”

   1997, Alexis Wright, Plains of Promise, page 228

   “Sorry, I′m flat chat with work. I don′t see how you can get away until Saturday.”

   2007, Joanna Hunt, Jacqui′s Dilemma, page 64

   2009, Sean Dooley, Cooking With Baz, Large Print 16pt Edition, page 167, Except that I was too flat chat to get up and collect it myself so I motioned to Wok as surreptitiously as I could, nodding in the direction of the note lying invitingly on the asphalt. Wok stared back at me uncomprehendingly.