noun

• (New Zealand) The practice of living, with others, in a flat.
• (countable) A type of paint that dries with a flat (matt) finish; a coating of such paint.
  "Bankart is of opinion that “an important point as regards painters on board ship is to recognize the fact that there is danger of poisoning, whenever quick-drying paints and flattings are being used in inclosed spaces,[…].”"
• (countable) A flat part of something, a flattening.
  "I have been informed, that there are some tribes in whom the posterior part of the head is flattened instead of the front part, and that these depressions and flattings of the head are produced by such artificial pressure."
• (countable) An instance of a musical note being flatter than intended.
  "The bell ropes hang from the outside of the tower, the resultant friction of the ropes over the brick sides producing irresolute sharpings or flattings of the notes."