[from cyberpunk SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces upon
brain-death] (also adjectival flatlined).
1. To {die}, terminate, or fail, esp. irreversibly. In hacker
parlance, this is used of machines only, human death being considered
somewhat too serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about.
2. To go completely quiescent; said of machines undergoing controlled
shutdown. "You can suffer file damage if you shut down Unix but power
off before the system has gone flatline."
3. Of a video tube, to fail by losing vertical scan, so all one sees
is a bright horizontal line bisecting the screen.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {cyberpunk}{die}{science-fiction fandom}]