flatten
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Flatten \Flat"ten\ (fl[a^]t"t'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
{Flattened}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Flattening}.] [From {Flat}, a.]
1. To reduce to an even surface or one approaching evenness;
to make flat; to level; to make plane.
[1913 Webster]
2. To throw down; to bring to the ground; to prostrate;
hence, to depress; to deject; to dispirit.
[1913 Webster]
3. To make vapid or insipid; to render stale.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Mus.) To lower the pitch of; to cause to sound less
sharp; to let fall from the pitch.
[1913 Webster]
{To flatten a sail} (Naut.), to set it more nearly
fore-and-aft of the vessel.
{Flattening oven}, in glass making, a heated chamber in which
split glass cylinders are flattened for window glass.
[1913 Webster]
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
flatten
vt.
[common] To remove structural information, esp. to filter something
with an implicit tree structure into a simple sequence of leaves; also
tends to imply mapping to {flat-ASCII}. "This code flattens an
expression with parentheses into an equivalent {canonical} form."
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
108 Moby Thesaurus words for "flatten":
align, assimilate to, balance, beat down, bend, blow down, break,
break down, bring down, bulldoze, burn down, cast down, chop down,
conquer, crush, cut down, dab, damp, demolish, disentangle, down,
drag, dress, dub, equalize, equilibrize, even, extend, fell, floor,
flush, grade, grease, ground, harmonize, harrow, homogenize,
humble, knock, knock down, knock out, knock over, lay, lay down,
lay flat, lay level, lay low, lay out, level, lubricate,
make uniform, master, mow, mow down, normalize, oil, override,
plane, planish, plaster, press out, prostrate, pull down, put down,
put straight, quell, rase, raze, rectify, reduce, regularize,
regulate, ride down, roll, roll flat, set straight, shave, sit up,
smash, smooth, smooth down, smooth out, smoothen, stabilize,
stand up, standardize, steamroll, steamroller, stereotype,
straighten, straighten out, straighten up, subdue, subjugate,
suppress, symmetrize, take down, tear down, throw down,
trample down, trample underfoot, tread underfoot, unbend, uncurl,
uniformize, unkink, unsnarl, vanquish
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