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.

See Examples For:

flat as a pancake

Sometimes the pitch is flat as a pancake, other times it spits like a cobra.

From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2025

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

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