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Glite Dictionary
➖ To stop living ➖ No activity ➖ To stop changing
to flatline

to flatline

10 6.3
To stop showing activity on a monitor, often meaning a person dies or a machine stops working
  • verb
  • /ˈflætˌlaɪn/
: dejar de funcionar
  • During the surgery, the patient's heart suddenly flatlined, prompting the doctors to act quickly.
  • brain activity flatlined

Examples

  • Doctor, number three just flatlined.

    I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

  • There was no kind of rise in the middle of the day and it just kind of flatlined all day long.

  • Short story: my best friend flatlined in my car on the way to the hospital.

    Blog text (30)

  • He flatlined, and then his heart started again.

    Dragonfly (2002)

  • Her body limp, bio-monitors showing her brain activity flatlined.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The machine alarm signaled that the patient had flatlined, indicating a critical situation.

  • When the monitor displayed that she had flatlined, the medical team rushed to revive her.

Antonyms

to function
338 2.6

To work in a particular role or job

to revive
66 4.1

To make a person conscious again after fainting

How Functional

to operate
618 2.8
to function
338 2.6
to fail
201 2.2
to flatline
10 6.3

Surface Forms

flatline infinitive
flatlined past
flatlined past participle
flatlining present participle
flatlines third person singular

Morphology

flatline = flat + line (semi-transparent) = flat + line

The verb is a straightforward conversion of the noun phrase into a verb (to show a flat line), but the implicature 'to die' is a specialized extension not directly deducible from the parts alone.

Etymology

The word flatline comes from the picture of a flat 'level' line on a heart monitor that shows 'no heartbeat'. So to flatline is to stop working or die, when a machine or person shows no activity.