flat as a pancake

Idioms

Extremely level, especially too much so. For example, There are no hills; this terrain is flat as a pancake. This simile dates from the 1500s and has survived its contemporary, flat as a flounder. It is sometimes used, either disparagingly or ruefully, to describe a small-breasted woman.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

They’re bucolic bits of Vermont countryside, flat as a pancake and home to about 7,300 people, according to the 2020 Census.

From Washington Post • Jul. 28, 2022

That’s why I’m drawing your attention to this 1942 Pathé newsreel in which a bust of Mussolini gets crushed flat as a pancake.

From Slate • Mar. 31, 2019

Then again, he was flat as a pancake today.

From Golf Digest • Sep. 30, 2018

In the third quarter of its year, Sainsbury's underlying, or like-for-like, sales grew a tiny bit, 0.2%, excluding fuel, and were flat as a pancake including fuel.

From BBC • Jan. 8, 2014

She pulls out a few more, including a mountain bike, even though the terrain is flat as a pancake here.

From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023