flat tire
Americannoun
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a pneumatic tire that has lost all or most of its air through leakage, puncture, or the like.
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Older Slang. a dull or socially inept person.
Etymology
Origin of flat tire
First recorded in 1920–25
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.
It's not like you can drive your car down the road, get a flat tire, pull over, fix it and keep going.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
We also help each other out if anything goes wrong—a flat tire or something.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 12, 2025
That fire started on National Park Service land after a driver’s trailer had a flat tire, causing a rim to scrape the road and shoot sparks into tinder-dry brush.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 21, 2024
He’s disarmingly earnest, the kind of guy who’d offer to help you fix a flat tire in a snowstorm.
From Salon • May 22, 2024
Journalists told stories, often wildly embroidered, of Osage who discarded grand pianos on their lawns or replaced old cars with new ones after getting a flat tire.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
