flat bedn.adj.
/ˈflat bɛd/, U.S. /ˈflæt ˌbɛd/ A. n.† 1. Mining and Geology. A bed or layer of rock forming a plane surface when split. Cf. flat-bedded adj. Obsolete.
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1747 W. Hooson Miners Dict. sig. Giij Dipp is when the Flat-Beds lies not Levell, but declines some way, and it is by them that we know when the Rock Dipps, unless we be on the Top of it.
1793 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse (ed. 2) §200 Stone that naturally rises in flat beds, or that can easily be split to any thickness.
2.
a. A horizontal surface forming a distinctive or functional part of an apparatus, as in a sewing machine, a scanner, etc. Also: an apparatus or machine of this kind.
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1819 Encycl. Londinensis XVI. 508/1 A pair of rollers may also have the greater part of their surface cut with dies, and a flat bed made to pass between the rollers, so as to form sheet-nails.
1857 W. E. Newton Specif. Patent 162 5 In a sewing machine in which the sewing is performed on a flat bed, the disc f would be fitted to a bearing within 20 a circular plate f*.
1913 J. W. Schulze Amer. Office iii. 41 The ordinary billing or bookkeeping machine is provided with a flat bed instead of the round platen found on the typewriter.
2001 What Digital Camera Aug. 80/2 Flatbeds [sc. scanners] come in various sizes from A5 to A3.
2011 Jordan Times (Nexis) 26 Aug. When a client gave me a rather large painting to scan, I first thought of going to someone who had a scanner with a larger flatbed.
b. Printing. A horizontal surface that bears the type or image to be printed; a printing press in which the type or image is held on a flat surface in a horizontal frame (rather than on a cylindrical drum or roller). Cf. sense B. 1a.
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1832 Z. Allen Pract. Tourist (1833) II. 273 The types are arranged on a flat bed in the usual way.
1917 W. C. Browne Offset Lithogr. 106 It becomes imperative that the presses are made to run to their utmost capacity, whether they be flat-beds, rotaries or offset machines.
1971 R. Brewer Approach to Print ii. 20 (caption) The type forme is on a reciprocating flat bed and the paper is fed on to a rotating cylinder.
1993 A. B. Brook Hard Way xv. 78 Horace himself set copy at the Linotype, then filled the chases and printed on a rotting little flatbed.
3. A trailer, wagon, truck, etc., having or consisting of a horizontal platform with no top or sides; the horizontal platform of such a conveyance.
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1889 Bush Advocate (Dannevirke, N.Z.) 30 Nov. The amusement is a kind of trolly with a flat bed and four small log wheels, and this is dragged up to the top of a sloping piece of ground, and the juvenile then takes his seat and rides to the bottom.
1918 Southern Lumberman 15 June 37/2 Inasmuch as flat beds are frequently, if not uniformly, used for hauling lumber, the opportunity for display is not especially great.
1972 Naval Aviation News July 29 (caption) Janice Simerman drives a flatbed when she isn't busy in training.
1986 P. Behrens Wanda in Night Driving (1987) 101 Their car would be loaded on a flatbed and travel three hundred miles by rail to Port Cartier on the St. Lawrence.
2017 A. Thomas Hate u Give x. 171 You got all these people pushing big flatbeds around, and them things are hard to push as it is, and you gotta maneuver it while it's stacked with stuff.
B. adj.
1.
a. Designating a printing press in which the printing type or surface is borne on a horizontal frame. Also: designating the method of printing with such a press; involving or operating such a press. Cf. sense A. 2b. Contrasted with rotary adj. 2b.
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1856 A. V. Newton Specif. Patent 2984 (1857) 4 A number of parallel straight blue lines in each Figure indicating the position of the form of types on a Napier or other similar flat-bed press.
1892 J. Southward Princ. & Progress Printing Machinery 108 The machine printed 3,145 sheets in the hour—a rate that is altogether unprecedented for a flat bed cylinder machine.
1929 Handbk. Amer. Trade-unions (U.S. Bureau Labor Statistics) 125 Local unions are organized and maintained on basis of occupational classification; i.e., flatbed pressmen, newspaper web pressmen, feeders, roller makers,..etc.
1959 Times 14 Jan. 12/4 The future will see photocomposition allied to letterpress printing, both flatbed and rotary, on an increasing scale.
1971 R. Brewer Approach to Print iii. 43 The rotary principle..makes for higher printing speeds compared with the flat-bed principle, in which the type-bed moves horizontally, still used in many letterpress machines.
2001 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 8 Feb. 16/3 I'd jot down an idea, type it up, take it to the print shop, set it on a linotype machine, run off a proof, and publish my own inky self on a flatbed press.
b. Designating a sewing machine with a flat surface on which the fabric rests. Also: involving or operating such a machine.
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1892 Chambers's Encycl. (new ed.) IX. 348/2 This machine is also constructed with a ‘cylinder feed’ specially adapted to the vamping of shoes..which is easily changed into a ‘flat-bed’ machine by means of an adjustable platform, adjusted over the cylinder feed.
1960 M. Spark Ballad of Peckham Rye iv. 67 They are advertising for ten twin-needle flat-bed machinists.
1965 Embroidery Autumn 78/1 An extension plate is supplied with some free-arm machines which converts them to flatbed.
2019 D. Thomas Fashionopolis vii. 184 Custom knitwear designer Myrrhia Resneck produced the dress on a traditional double-needle flatbed machine.
c. In other contexts: (of an apparatus or mechanism) distinguished as having or forming a horizontal surface (esp. in contrast to a drum or roller); having a flat surface to be used during operation. Also: designating such a method of operation.
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1905 Inland Printer Apr. 39/2 Many pamphlet jobs can be run ‘two on’, inserted and stitched, put in the trimmer and trimmed off on three sides, then cut in half on flat-bed cutter.
1964 J. F. W. Galyer & C. R. Shotbolt Metrol. for Engineers vi. 120 The test described relates to a flat-bed lathe, but the method applies also to a bed with vee guide-ways.
1979 SLR Camera June 39/3 Don't put the prints in a conventional flat-bed or rotary dryer designed for drying fibre-based papers.
1981 J. Monaco How to read Film (rev. ed.) ii. 105 The horizontal, or flat-bed, editing table had been pioneered by the UFA studios in Germany in the twenties and was widely used throughout Europe before World War II.
1989 PC World Oct. 117/1 The flatbed technology lets paper enter and exit the printer directly without wrapping around a platen.
2001 E. Colfer Artemis Fowl i. 6 Artemis studied the Polaroid... It seemed promising, but anything could be faked these days with a PC and flatbed scanner.
2. Of a trailer, wagon, truck, etc.: having or consisting of a horizontal platform with no top or sides. Cf. sense A. 3.
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1894 Gardening (Chicago) 15 Jan. 137/3 I have moved four [trees] this fall nicely with a flat bed wagon, two horses and three men.
1959 J. Thompson Getaway (1994) iii. 30 A flatbed farm truck was parked rear end first at the curb.
1971 P. Driscoll White Lie Assignment x. 82 Two long flatbed trailers were parked with canvas-covered cylinders on them.
2013 Daily Tel. 27 Feb. 5/3 The road curves smoothly without sharp turns, potentially allowing long vehicles like articulated flatbed trucks to navigate it.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2022).
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n.adj.1747