flatting

Noun

flatting (usually uncountable, plural flattings)

1. (New Zealand, usually) The practice of living, with others, in a flat.
2. (countable, usually) A 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. (usually) The process of applying a coating of flatting paint.
4. (countable, usually) A 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. (usually) The process of becoming flat.
6. (usually) The process of causing something to become flat; the process of flattening something.
   • flatting-mill
   • 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
7. (countable, usually) An 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
   • 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. (usually) A 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. (usually) The process of forming metal into sheets by passing it between rollers.