"The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […]."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"This early slowdown is one piece of a broader evolutionary trend known as gracilization, the tendency for modern humans to become more delicate in form. Our bones are thinner, our muscles smaller, and our faces flatter than those of earlier hominins."
— 2025 November 27, Tibi Puiu, “This Is Why Modern Human Faces Look So Different From Neanderthals”, in ZME Science, archived from the original on 23 Feb 2026:
"How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world."
— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
"Wag[ner]. Vilaine, call me Maiſter Wagner, and let thy left eye be diametarily fixt vpon my right heele, with quaſi veſtigias nostras inſistere [as if to follow in our footsteps]. / Clo[wn]: God forgiue me, he ſpeakes Dutch fuſtian: / well, Ile folow him, Ile ſerue him, thats flat."
— 1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC, signature [B4], recto:
"SECOND WATCH. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.
DOGBERRY. Flat burglary as ever was committed"
— 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]: