flatten the curve

[flat-n thuh kurv]

idiom

1. (during a disease outbreak) to use public health measures to achieve a more gradual increase and decrease in the number of new cases, spreading the same total number of cases over a longer period of time, as depicted by a gently sloping curved line on a graph.

   Flattening the curve will prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with patients.

Word History and Origins

Origin of flatten the curve¹

First recorded in 2005–10

Example Sentences

“If we can flatten the curve of demand on the student loan servicing environment by having people reach out in June, July and August … we can mitigate some of the pressures that are going to come to the system,” Buchanan said.

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The question for this year, Mr. Olivet said, is “whether we were able to flatten the curve and even start pointing downwards.”

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You can “flatten the curve” of addiction, using treatment and other strategies, as surely as with a virus.

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At times the city’s crime itself has seemed like a virus, spreading and injuring countless victims and businesses, all while city leaders in 2020 and 2021 had no coherent plan to “flatten the curve.”

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For more than a year, AP journalists interviewed sources and pored over thousands of documents to trace how technologies marketed to “flatten the curve” were put to other uses.

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