a flat box

[Armine_Rahim]

A lot of cheaper furniture nowadays comes in pieces inside a flat box for you to build yourself.
What does 'a flat box' mean?

 

[Glenfarclas]

A box more or less like this:

 

[Cenzontle]

Every box has three dimensions. A flat box has one dimension that is much shorter than the other two. Good picture, Glen!

 

[Armine_Rahim]

OK.

 

[kentix]

It's nothing like the shape of the finished furniture.

 

[Packard]

A box more or less like this:

To expand on Glen's post, it is a box which has a length and width that are relatively large compared to the depth. In Glen's illustration the depth is quite shallow. The furniture is made of flat panels that when unassembled have dimensions that are fairly large in the length and width, but shallow in the depth.

Here is a desk coming off the packaging line in a flat box: