Meaning

4 senses
  1. (US)A short haircut in which the hair is brushed straight up then cut flat across the top.

  2. (US, informal)An aircraft carrier.

  3. A type of stringed instrument, most often an acoustic guitar, with a flat top (as opposed to an archtop), with strings held in place with pins, and with a complex system of bracing struts on the top.

  4. A grill with a flat cooking surface rather than metal bars.

More definitions
  • a large warship that carries planes and has a long flat deck for takeoffs and landings
  • a closely cropped haircut; usually for men or boys

Origin

From flat + top. Sense of “aircraft carrier” attributed to the message, “Scratch one flatt

From flat + top. Sense of “aircraft carrier” attributed to the message, “Scratch one flattop,” radioed during the Battle of the Coral Sea by LCDR Robert E. Dixon to the USS Lexington, whose commanding officer credited the pilot with coining the standard USN slang.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: flattops

Synonyms

6 synonyms
guitar with a flat top:folk guitar
Close in meaning

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
flattop — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto