Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to go flat

to go flat

3 2.8
Lose air so a tire or ball becomes soft and cannot hold shape
  • phrasal verb
  • /ɡoʊ flæt/
translation icon : desinflarse
  • I think one of my tires is going flat.
  • the tire went flat

Examples

  • As Perkins was talking to the officer, one of the tires on her car went flat.

  • We were headed to Tahoe... when all the tires went flat.

    Desperation (2006)

  • Our tires went flat in twelve minutes.

    Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)

  • The driver's side rear tire just went flat.

    Blog text (2)

  • On their way home, shortly before Ferrhlm, one of their tires went flat.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • All the sedan's tires went flat, and its window imploded.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • When Celia takes him to the movies in Papa's Studebaker, a rear tire goes flat and he helps her change it.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • It had a dent in one fender, and one tire had gone flat.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • I think one of my tires is going flat.

  • We were headed to Tahoe when all the tires went flat.

Synonyms

to deflate
vsto go flat
18 3.1

To let air out of something so it becomes smaller or loses its shape

occurs when air escapes by leak or damage rather than by someone letting it out

Antonyms

to inflate
44 2.9

To fill something with air so it becomes larger and round

to pump up
  • Informal
28 4.1

Make someone feel excited and full of energy

How Flat

to go flat
3 2.8
to reinflate
3 3.9

Surface Forms

go flat infinitive
went flat past
gone flat past participle
going flat present participle
goes flat third person singular

Morphology

go + flat

The construction is a regular 'go + adjective/state' pattern where 'go' = 'come to be in a particular state' and 'flat' = 'deflated/not inflated', so the overall meaning 'become deflated' is directly derivable from the parts. This change-of-state pattern is common in English and across languages, making the expression immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.

Etymology

Go flat comes from things like tires, balls, or balloons that lose air and become flat, with the verb go and the adjective flat showing that change. So, it means 'to lose air and become deflated'.