flat broke

flat broke

slang Having no money. Primarily heard in US. I get paid next week, so can we go out to dinner then? I'm just flat broke right now. I'm flat broke once again and don't know how I'm going to pay my rent.
See also: broke, flat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

flat broke

 and flat busted
Fig. having no money at all. Sorry, I'm flat broke. Not a cent on me. You may be flat broke, but you will find a way to pay your electricity bill or you will live in the dark. Mary was flat busted, and it was two more weeks before she was due to get paid.
See also: broke, flat
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

flat broke

Also, stone or stony broke . Completely penniless. For example, I can't help you-I'm flat broke, or He's stone broke again. The first term dates from the mid-1800s and uses flat in the sense of "completely" or "downright." The variant dates from the late 1800s.
See also: broke, flat
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

flat broke

mod. having no money at all. Sorry, I’m flat broke. Not a cent on me.
See also: broke, flat
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • be flat broke
  • stone broke
  • stony broke
  • go broke
  • dead broke
  • broke
  • go for broke
  • be strapped for cash
  • be as sound as a bell
  • break against (something)
References in periodicals archive
Feeding into TV's parallel obsessions with the super-rich and the flat broke, here we meet car buyers who desperately need wheels to get from A to B, but also investors who buy Ferraris purely to store them away to appreciate in value.
According to the source, Gamble even said that with her talents and tricks, Kris could be a professional if she is ever flat broke which luckily, isn't bound to happen anytime soon with season 10 of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" in full production and her family's businesses also in full bloom.
The first-ever star guest on Channel 5's homage to the flat broke, Can't Pay?
Not my fault 'e's flat broke.' 'Why's he broke, then?' The girl narrowed her eyes.
It is believed the fire in the flat broke out in the kitchen and may have been started by food ed which had been left unattended on the cooker.
Perhaps it is something to do with student days, all those party breakages and the resulting failure to return your deposit just when you are flat broke at the end of the summer term and desperately in need of an injection of cash.
London, Aug 31 ( ANI ): Welsh striker Gareth Bale is so attached to his mother that when the washing machine at his London flat broke down, he drove 200 miles down to Cardiff, to take his washing home to her.
But you can't deny that it would go a long way toward ridding us of all those mountains of snow out there - and at no cost to the country, the states, counties, cities or towns, all of which are pretty much flat broke as things stand now.
23 ISSUE OF THE NEW York Times published a fascinating article on Arkansas and the Great Depression, when the state went "plain, flat broke," that carries some lessons for the state and our Great Recession.
Ben Collins took on the role in 2003 after the original "black" Stig, the racing driver Perry McCarthy, outed himself in an autobiography called Flat Out, Flat Broke.
As he says in his autobiography Flat Out, Flat Broke: "After a while I began reading about the teams, the cars and the drivers.
Stating that he is a man who gets what he sets his sights on, Fator, who was flat broke when he won America's Got Talent, admits that there is some irony in the forces that have brought him from obscurity to the Mirage in less than a year.
A jobless South Korean who was flat broke and hungry has been detained for cooking his landlady's pet dog, police said yesterday.
OLD HOME Flat broke: Angela's former home; NEW HOME Big impression: She loves pounds 700,000 villa; I'll take lott: Villa is furnished; Shook up: Celebrating pounds 35m win
"While in radiography school, I was flat broke and had to depend on loans, grants and scholarships to get me through.