Synonyms of flattening

flattening

verb

present participle of flatten

1

as in smoothing

to make free from breaks, curves, or bumps

flattened out the wrinkled paper before attempting to trace the pattern

Synonyms & Similar Words

• smoothing
• shaving
• trimming
• raking
• planing
• evening
• leveling
• smoothening
• clipping
• laying
• paring
• cropping
• pruning
• combing
• spreading
• pressing
• surfacing
• carding

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• roughing
• roughening
• wrinkling
• bending
• pitting
• denting
• rumpling
• coarsening
• kinking

2

as in overcoming

to defeat by a large margin

if you don't understand the rules, you're going to get flattened when you try to play

Synonyms & Similar Words

• overcoming
• burying
• whipping
• bombing
• trimming
• throwing
• dusting
• annihilating
• upsetting
• pasting
• smothering
• mastering
• routing
• beating
• topping
• creaming
• thrashing
• skinning
• clobbering
• taking
• smoking
• destroying
• sweeping
• whopping
• waxing
• blowing away
• overwhelming
• conquering
• scoring
• crushing
• tromping
• trouncing
• surpassing
• exceeding
• succeeding
• capping
• walloping
• whomping
• shellacking
• dispatching
• drubbing
• whupping
• eating alive
• subduing
• licking
• beating the pants off
• surmounting
• subjugating
• running circles around
• snowing under
• slaughtering
• finishing
• overthrowing
• upending
• skunking
• vanquishing
• wiping the floor with
• prevailing (over)
• transcending
• hurdling
• eclipsing
• overpowering
• besting
• winning (against)
• bettering
• outstripping
• outdistancing
• triumphing (over)
• outdoing
• outshining
• flourishing
• knocking over
• excelling
• overtopping
• worsting
• overmatching
• breaking
• knocking off
• sinking
• overbearing
• edging (out)
• pipping
• acing (out)
• outfighting
• doing in
• nosing out

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of flattening

Lighting director Frédéric Dorieux has said that the team aims for light that is soft, even, and full without flattening the face. — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 3 Oct. 2026

And there are no placards festooned with Motel 6 and Starbucks logos, flattening the American landscape into a homogeneous blur. — David Alm, Longreads, 1 Oct. 2026

Useful feedback can sharpen the execution without flattening the personality. — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 29 Sep. 2026

Vibration disturbs the natural sediments in wine, flattening the flavor and aging it prematurely. — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 25 Sep. 2026

For one, housing prices are flattening, and in some markets there is an excess supply of houses on the market. — Melanie Stetson Freeman, Christian Science Monitor, 9 Sep. 2026

Shaving down the error Instead of building costly new equipment, the team solved the issue by flattening the material’s surface using a Cooling Cross-section Polisher. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 7 Sep. 2026

Reading history has a way of flattening the courage of the moment, making political action seem inevitable in hindsight. — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 2 Sep. 2026

The Premier League, our league, is a bulldozer, flattening anything and everything. — George Caulkin, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026