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# flatten

«flatten» in Mova's school dictionary: **To make something flat or flatter by pressing or rolling it** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (flatten, flattens, flattened, flattening)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To make something flat or flatter by pressing or rolling it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#m1)

2) To knock down or destroy something completely: «The storm flattened the trees». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#m2)

3) To become flat: «The hills flatten out near the sea». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In cooking and crafts you flatten dough or clay with a rolling pin. In science and geography: wind or floods flatten crops and buildings; land flattens out into plains. In maths graphs: a line «flattens out» when it stops rising. Phrases: «flatten out», «flatten the dough», «flatten a box».

### examples

- Flatten the dough with a rolling pin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x1)
- We flattened the cardboard boxes for recycling. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x2)
- The storm flattened the farmer's wheat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x3)
- The road flattens out after the big hill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x4)
- She flattened the crumpled paper with her hand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x5)
- Squash and flatten the plasticine into a pancake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x6)
- The line on the graph flattens out after day five. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x7)
- Her head seemed to flatten, and her eyes to look oddly round the corners; her legs and her arms were stuck to her sides, and she gasped wildly for breath. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/#x8)

### note

Double t + -en: flatten, flattened. Comes from «flat» + «-en» (like «short → shorten»). Do not confuse with «flatter» (to praise too much) or «flatter» (more flat).

### In the corpora

- [Then he heaves a long, long sigh, flattens his hair down neatly, and goes quietly downstairs to his guests.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/73-willows-ch12-part4-an-altered-toad/1/)
- [After dinner you rinse a tin, flatten a cereal box and drop a bottle into the right bin.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/32-recycling-second-life/0/)
- [Ears turned back or flattened mean a cat is scared or angry.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/23-understanding-cats/11/)
- [When Chloe reaches for her, Duchess flattens her ears and stalks off like a duchess who's been insulted.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/457-the-cat-that-only-likes-dad-and-other-choosy-pets/2/)
- [The Earth is shaped like a ball, very slightly flattened at the poles.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/7-shape-and-size-of-the-earth/5/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «flatten» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flatten/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.