1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 40. For though all know that flashy spark, etc.
Flat, subs. (colloquial).—1. A greenhorn; noddy; gull. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head; also Sammy-soft.
1762. Goldsmith, Life of Nash, in wks. p. 546 (Globe). Why, if you think me a dab I will get this strange gentleman, or this, pointing to the flat. Done! cries the sailor, but you shall not tell him.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that is, cards.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 59. Poor Johnny Raw, what madness could impel, So rum a flat to face so prime a swell.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ He’s been upon the mill, And cos he gammons all the flats we calls him Veepin Bill.
1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. II., ch. ix. ‘Did he pay you for her?’ ‘Why, to be sure, he gave me a cheque on Coutt’s.’ ‘And you took it? My eyes? what a flat.’
1847. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xiv. I won two hundred of him at the Cocoa-tree. He play, the young flat!
1847. Punch, vol. XIII., p. 148. It mayn’t precisely please the moral flat. You won’t find fault with it, kind friends, for that.
1848. Thackeray, The Book of Snobs, ch. x. When he does play he always contrives to get hold of a good flat.