To pick up a flat, verb. phr. (prostitutes’). To find a client. Fr., lever or faire un miché (miche = bread, from michon = money. Compare Breadwinner: under Monosyllable (q.v.)).
1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. On the chance that she will, in the course of the evening, pick up a flat.
To have (or do) a bit of flat, verb. phr. (venery).—To indulge in sexual intercourse. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.
Flat-back, subs. (common).—A bed-bug. For synonyms, see Norfolk Howard.
Flat-broke, adj. (colloquial).—Utterly ruined; dead-broke (q.v.).
Flat-catcher, subs. (common).—An impostor.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, i., 6. Cope (speaking of a horse). Well, Master Gull’em, do you think we shall get the flat-catcher off to-day?
1841. Blackwood’s Mag., l., 202. Buttoners are those accomplices of thimble-riggers … whose duty it is to act as flat-catchers or decoys, by personating flats.
1856. Mayhew, Great World of London, p. 46. And flat-catchers, or ‘ring-droppers,’ who cheat by pretending to find valuables in the street.
1864. London Review, June 18, p. 643. ‘The Bobby’ or chinked-back horse, is another favourite flat-catcher.