to fall flat
19
4.9
- phrasal verb
- /fɔl flæt/
- Informal
:
fracasar
- His jokes often fall flat because he misses the audience's sense of humor.
Maybe you flirt with her and it just falls flat and she's just not interested.
- Maybe you flirt with her and it just falls flat and she's just not interested.
- And unless you're really, really funny, that will fall flat.
- See, I'm saying the routine is so grounding that it doesn't allow me to fall flat.
- So yes, maybe the first few girls you you try it with, it's like it falls flat.
- And so that whole flower thing is just falling flat and it doesn't do for her what he thinks it's doing for her.
- Through Casey's story, Men explores how conventional ideas of money, class, and ambition may fall flat in lived reality.
- What are some ways you've seen screenwriters try to draw out suspense but it falls flat?
- At some point I'm going to fall flat on my face because some part of my strategy isn't right.
- So you say there are times when a singer doesn't connect with a song, like an actor whose line reading falls flat.
- Where this palette falls flat for me is the shimmers and the satins in here, they're very crumbly.
Examples
-
Marketing and branding are very important, of course, but fall flat without genuine loyalty.
Blog text (20) -
Maybe you flirt with her and it just falls flat and she's just not interested.
-
Even Enterprise, which I had a lot of high hopes for, fell flat in the character department.
Blog text (8) -
And if everything you do falls flat and you can't change it, then change the way you think about it.
-
Your attempts at mockery fall flat.
-
THE PROBLEM: The traditional conflict-resolution approach is too simple and falls flat.
Academic text (2009) -
Through Casey's story, Men explores how conventional ideas of money, class, and ambition may fall flat in lived reality.
-
However, where Mini-Plans have fallen flat on their faces is in the area of transparency and accountability.
Academic text (1993) -
Despite her best efforts, the presentation fell flat and failed to engage the crowd.
-
The movie was meant to be a comedy, but it fell flat without any funny moments.
Synonyms
898
1.0
Not succeed in doing something you wanted to do
492
1.0
Fail to do what someone hoped for
19
4.0
To end without success, often in public like a show
5
7.1
To fail completely and feel embarrassed in front of others
5
6.8
To fail completely because of problems with plans or projects
2
4.1
Not make people think something is good or special
To fail completely in an embarrassing way
Antonyms
How Badly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'flat' (lacking liveliness or interest) combined with 'fall' conveys the idea of something landing in a lifeless or ineffective state, so the overall sense 'to fail to have the intended effect' is partly recoverable from the parts. However the mapping is metaphorical (something 'falls' into being 'flat') and not a straightforward compositional pattern that all B1 learners will predict, and cross-linguistic realizations vary, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrasal verb fall flat comes from the picture of something that falls and lands flat on the ground with no bounce, so it makes no sound or movement. That's why when a joke, plan, or idea falls flat, people give no reaction and it means 'to fail completely'.