Flatbed

//ˈflætˌbɛd// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An open freight vehicle with no sides, designed to carry heavy or outsized loads.
  2. 2
    an open truck bed or trailer with no sides; used to carry large heavy objects wordnet
  3. 3
    A railway freight car with no sides; a flatcar.

    "The Rotrac E2 shunter was built by German manufacturer Zwiehoff and has been subject to a 14-month trial to prove it can replace diesel traction for moving flatbed wagons in and out of the depot."

  4. 4
    freight car without permanent sides or roof wordnet
  5. 5
    Clipping of flatbed trolley. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A document scanner with a flat bed.
Verb
  1. 1
    To transport by flatbed.

    "Tatiana went from working the pulley that lifted the treadless tank and placed it on tread, to painting the red star on a finished tank ready to be flatbedded and put into production."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having a flat bed. not-comparable

    "I can't scan the whole document quickly because I only have a flatbed scanner."

Example

More examples

"The Rotrac E2 shunter was built by German manufacturer Zwiehoff and has been subject to a 14-month trial to prove it can replace diesel traction for moving flatbed wagons in and out of the depot."

Etymology

From flat + bed.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.