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