coldwater flat

English

Alternative forms

• cold-water flat
• cold water flat

Noun

coldwater flat (plural coldwater flats)

1. (chiefly US, dated) A small, very inexpensive apartment having only the most rudimentary features and lacking a plumbing system to supply hot water.
   • 1955 August 29, “Cinema: The Kid from Hoboken”, in Time, retrieved 27 September 2018:

     In Hoboken, in a coldwater flat ("one can to four families"), Frank was born on Dec. 12, 1915.

   • 1974 April 26, Bernadine Morris, “Shop Talk”, in New York Times, retrieved 27 September 2018:

     "I used to drop in here on Saturdays, when I lived in a coldwater flat and couldn't afford to buy anything […] ," she reminisced.

   • 2005 June 15, Peter Dickinson, “Obituary: David Diamond”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 27 September 2018:

     [Diamond] lived in Florence until 1965. He was on his third Guggenheim Fellowship and explained, "I can make my income last and live extremely well with my own villa and garden at a cost that would provide a hole-in-the-wall, coldwater flat in America."

   • 2008 April 5, Rita Zekas, “Quilty pleasure”, in The Star, Canada, retrieved 27 September 2018:

     Page has been collecting and hoarding fabric since the early '70s, when she was a hippie living in a cold-water flat in Montreal.

See also

• tenement