flatting

plural flattings

1. New ZealanduncountableusuallyThe practice of living, with others, in a flat.
2. countableusuallyA type of paint that dries with a flat (matt) finish; a coating of such paint.

   Bankart is of opinion that “an important point as regards painters on board ship is to recognize the fact that there is danger of poisoning, whenever quick-drying paints and flattings are being used in inclosed spaces,[…].”

   1915, United States Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, United States Naval Medical Bulletin, page 694

3. uncountableusuallyThe process of applying a coating of flatting paint.
4. countableusuallyA flat part of something, a flattening.

   I have been informed, that there are some tribes in whom the posterior part of the head is flattened instead of the front part, and that these depressions and flattings of the head are produced by such artificial pressure.

   1825, The Lancet, volume 7, page 73

5. uncountableusuallyThe process of becoming flat.
6. uncountableusuallyThe process of causing something to become flat; the process of flattening something.

   flatting-mill

   2 more examples

   Flatting agents reduces gloss by scattering reflected light. The more flatting agent added, the duller the appearance and the greater the loss of film clarity.

   1998, Bob Flexner, Understanding Wood Finishing: How to Select and Apply the Right Finish, page 132

   Recent chemical advances allow significantly increased control of flatting behavior through the utilization of special acidic-functionality copolymeric additives.

   1998, Edward W. Orr, Performance Enhancement in Coatings, page 274

7. countableusuallyAn instance of a musical note being flatter than intended.

   The bell ropes hang from the outside of the tower, the resultant friction of the ropes over the brick sides producing irresolute sharpings or flattings of the notes.

   1982, Clark Coolidge, Mine: The One that Enters the Stories, page 27

   1 more example

   Leland Smith goes so far as to say, “in tonal music the minor mode has no separate existence, but represents merely a fairly consistently applied group of alterations — flattings — of certain parts of the major mode.”

   2004, Michael R. Rogers, Teaching Approaches in Music Theory: An Overview of Pedagogical Philosophies, 2nd edition, page 37

8. uncountableusuallyA method of preserving gilding unburnished, by touching with size.

   The Nottingham white-lead is the most esteemed for what is called flatting, or dead white.

   1823, Peter Nicholson, The New Practical Builder and Workman's Companion

9. uncountableusuallyThe process of forming metal into sheets by passing it between rollers.

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of flat