FLAT

a character or sign in music, used to lower or depre , by the degree of a semitone, any note in the natural scale. It is marked thus ». An accidental flat is one which does not occur in the signature, and which affects only the bar in which it is placed, FLAT-FISH, a fish which has its body of a flattened form, and swims on one side. The side facing downwards is pale in colour, while that facing upwards is dark and bears both the eyes. In turbot and brill the eyes are on the left side, but they are on the right side in plaice, flounder, dab, halibut, and sole. The sense is sometimes extended to other fishes which have the body much compre ed from above downwards, as the skate and other members of the ray family.