flat tire
42
2.2
- noun
- /flæt taɪər/
- US
:
pinchazo
- After driving over a sharp object, I realized I had a flat tire and needed to change it.
- get a flat tire
That wasn't cruel or abusive, but it's the stuff that happens like flat tires and stomach bugs.
- That wasn't cruel or abusive, but it's the stuff that happens like flat tires and stomach bugs.
- So if I have if I have a car that has a flat tire, an oil change isn't going to fix it, right?
- And he used the example of of a couple that's repairing a flat tire.
- Let's say taking a girl that you're seeing out on a road trip, then you get a flat tire and you don't know what to do.
- Being kind to me is when you see somebody struggling on the side of the road with a, you know, with a flat tire, you get out and you help them with it.
- If someone gets a flat tire in Queens, the whole Eastern seaboard locks up for three hours.
- You get a flat tire or whatever you encounter and you see how the person deals with stress and you see how you deal with each other under stress.
- He saw up there as one of the earlier earlier participants in the lab with heart with heart transplant and so they about the airport they got a flat tire.
Examples
-
One day, while driving a leased vehicle, he got a flat tire.
Academic text (1996) -
Gerstein recalls a day when he was driving the Bentley to work when he got a flat tire.
Academic text (2001) -
I think we got a flat tire.
-
I got a flat tire.
-
I had a flat tire when I came out.
-
We had a flat tire on one trip into town.
Academic text (2006) -
But they came from San Diego and got a flat tire.
-
By the time I reached the bottom of the hill, my flat tire light had illuminated.
Blog text (4) -
Few automotive mishaps can ruin a driver's day as thoroughly as a flat tire.
Academic text (1995) -
It's windy, raining, and cold; he gets a flat tire on this muddy road.
Blog text (21)
Synonyms
33
2.3
A tire with little or no air that cannot be driven on
How Inflated
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly predictable from combining 'flat' (deflated) with 'tire' (wheel covering): a tire that is flat = a tire that has lost air. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows straightforward adjective+noun semantics, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Flat tire comes from the simple picture of a tire losing air and going flat, like a soft ring squashed on the road. So, it means 'a tire that has lost air and cannot work'.