flat-out

Also found in: Idioms.

flat-out

(flăt′out′)

adj. Informal

Thoroughgoing; out-and-out: a flat-out promotional campaign; a flat-out deception.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

flat-out

adj

1. done at maximum speed

2. US downright; complete and utter

adv

US simply; completely and utterly

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

flat′-out′

adj. Informal.

1. using full speed or all of one's resources: a flat-out effort.

2. downright: a flat-out forgery.

[1925–30]

References in periodicals archive ?

Rather than focusing on flat-out speed, this new concept opts for a 3-cylinder petrol engine with plenty of performance on tap.

CITROEN FOR THE SENSES

Already in 1883, Oscar Wilde called Sargent's Pailleron Children "vicious and meretricious." Still, we would have to be blind not to respond with awe when confronting the four girls, ages four to fourteen, whom Sargent magically pinpointed in The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, a flat-out masterpiece that grips the eye with its abrupt jumps from starched white pinafores to the shadowy voids of a Paris apartment.

Sargent major

"Firstly, all the special stages of the rally are covered with snow, and this requires equipping the cars with spiked tyres (384 Spiked Nails) in order to attain maximum grip during all the rally stages, coupled with extreme thoughtfulness to curving, braking, and maneuvering tricky flat-outs, where even the slightest error from either driver or co-driver could result in dire consequences and the loss of precious seconds, or even minutes," he said.