Education Why are batteries refered to as flat?

ch424 · 20 Apr 2010

Oxford English Dictionary says

9 a. Wanting in energy and spirit; lifeless, dull. Also, out of spirits, low, dejected, depressed.

1602 SHAKES. Ham. IV. vii. 31 You must not thinke That we are made of stuffe, so flat, and dull, That, [etc.]. 1642 DK. NEWCASTLE Let. in Life (1886) 330 The town will not admit of me..so I am very flat and out of countenance here. c1680 BEVERIDGE Serm. (1729) I. 37 Lest he should grow flat in his devotions. 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 324 Her spirits were dull and flat. 1805 LAMB Lett. (1888) I. 213, I am now calm, but sadly taken down and flat. 1844 ALB. SMITH Adv. Mr. Ledbury xxiii. (1886) 71 The audience..not witnessing any situation half so comic as the one they had just seen, were proportionately flat.

b. Of trade, etc.: Depressed, dull, inactive.

1831 Lincoln Herald 30 Dec. 1 The trade for barley is exceedingly flat. 1894 Times (weekly ed.) 9 Feb. 123/2 Tallow trade, flat, but prices unchanged. 1894 Daily News 1 June 3/5 A flat market for maize.

c. Of an electric battery: run down, (fully) discharged.

1951 Autocar 9 Nov. 1445/2 After five hundred miles of touring I found myself with a completely flat battery. 1961 Which? Apr. 89/1 If this discharging process goes on long enough, the battery will be left flat. 1969 N. FREELING Tsing-Boum ii. 17 The car battery is flat and I've got to charge it. 1978 B. FRANCIS AA Car Duffer's Guide 42/1 A bloke rings up saying he had a flat battery.
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Flat as in drinks and tyres are under separate entries.

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Education Why are batteries refered to as flat?

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Education Why are batteries refered to as flat?

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