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.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
What if he gets an inopportune flat tire or worse?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
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
I can’t touch the clot in a patient’s coronary, or see their stroke in the same way I can see a flat tire.
From Salon ● May 20, 2025
She explains to José that they have a flat tire and must go back down the road to the big house.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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.
