flash

A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.

Adjective

  1. Expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.
    • The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are, He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar; - 1892, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Ironbark:
  2. Having plenty of ready money.
  3. Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
    • Bit of a flash git, don't you think? - 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:
  4. Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
  5. Relating to thieves and vagabonds.
    • the flash language: thieves' cant or slang
    • flash notes: counterfeit banknotes
    • Why, you would not be boosing till lightman's in a square crib like mine, as if you were in a flash panny? - 1828, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Pelham, Or, Adventures of a Gentleman:

Origin

In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).

Forms

more flash most flash

Noun Entry 2

  1. A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.
    • Between 8 and 9 p.m., the recorder at a meteorological station at Harrow, Middlesex, picked up 1,470 lightning flashes within a radius of 10 to 15 miles, and observers at the station described the storm as "probably one...

    Synonyms: gleam glint

    Hypernyms: light

  2. A very short amount of time.
    • [F]or Empire and Greatneſs it importeth moſt, that a Nation do profeſs Arms as their principal Honour, Study and Occupation: […] The Fabrick of the State of Sparta was wholly (though not wiſely) framed and compoſed to...
    • Quick—something must be done! done in a flash, too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention. - 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1st American edition, Hartford, Conn.; Chicago,...

    Synonyms: instant jiffy twinkle bat of an eye bit blink of an eye crack eyeblink flash glimpse half a mo jiff jot minute mo moment New York minute New York second no time sec second span split-second spurt

    Antonyms: aeon spell age ages blue moon coon's age crow's age dog's age donkey's years eld eon eternity forever forever and a day interim interlude interval lifetime long haul long run meantime minute month of Sundays while

  3. A flashlight; an electric torch.
    • I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car. - 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, OCLC 747046957; republished London: Penguin Books, 2011, ISBN...
  4. A sudden and brilliant burst, as of genius or wit.
    • [B]reath his faults ſo quaintly, / That they may ſeeme the taints of liberty; / The flaſh and out-breake of a fiery minde, / A ſauagenes in vnreclaim'd bloud of generall aſſault. - 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The...
    • I cannot learn that he [Patrick Henry] gave, in his youth, any evidence of that precocity which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius. His companions recollect no instance of premature wit, no striking sentiment, no...
    • Fabio Capello insisted [Wayne] Rooney was in the right frame of mind to play in stormy Podgorica despite his father's arrest on Thursday in a probe into alleged betting irregularities, but his flash of temper – when he...
  5. Pizzazz, razzle-dazzle.
    • Above all, they hate flash. Just as the English working class has always been, they are fiercely puritanical and abhor all forms of display. - 1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New...
    • Another pleasant surprise of She-Devil is director Susan Seidelman's infusion of political moxie into the movie, a departure from her tendency to dish out lots of flash with little substance. - 1989 December 24,...
    • The ATF sound was lacking in extended solos, flash, and pomposity, but CBS liked the group's respect for traditional Anglo-rock, their Beatles-like energy, and the splashes of Yes, Genesis, and 10cc that colored their...

    Synonyms: elan flair

  6. Material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould.

    Synonyms: moulding flash molding flash

  7. The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.
  8. A pattern where each prop is thrown and caught only once.
  9. A language, created by a minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class.
  10. Clipping of camera flash (“a device used to produce a flash of artificial light to help illuminate a scene”).
  11. A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
  12. A form of military insignia.
    • I just got my first commando flash.

Forms

flashes

Related

glimmer shimmer sparkle twinkle

Derived

antiflash anti-flash arc flash autoflash backflash blue flash bootflash camera flash crown flash double-flash double flash eyebrow flash flashable flash back flash-ball flash bang flash-bang flashbar flash boiler flashbulb flash burn flash burner flash card flashcard

Noun Entry 3

  1. A pool of water, in some areas especially one that is marshy, and/or one formed by subsidence of the ground due to mining. (Compare flush (“marsh; pool”).)
    • their hearts lie lumpish as a Log that lies in a flash of water seven years together - a. 1646, Jeremiah Burroughs, The Excellency of Holy Courage in Evil Times:
    • The […] woods, commons, ponds, 'flashes,' bogs, 'damp spots,' and ditches are, when the number and rarity of some of the species are taken into account, the richest botanical ground in Lincolnshire; - 1895, The...
    • It includes deep holes, wet and dry, and the hill-and-dale formations left by the mechanical excavation of sand, gravel, clay, ironstone and other surface-worked minerals; the heaps of shale, waste products and fuel ash...
  2. A reservoir and sluiceway beside a navigable stream, just above a shoal, so that the stream may pour in water as boats pass, and thus bear them over the shoal.

Origin

From Middle English flashe, flaske, also found as flosche and flushe (whence modern English flosh and flush), used in Middle and modern English for bodies of water with varying emphasis on them being "pools" or "marshes". It is not entirely clear whether these constitute a single term with varied spellings, or have distinct etymologies. The form flash, flashe is often suggested to be from Old French flache, French flaque, which is of Germanic origin, akin to Middle Dutch vlacke (“an estuary, flats with stagnant pools”). See flush for more on that form.

Forms

flashes

Derived

flash wheel

Verb

  1. To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
    • He flashed the light at the water, trying to see what made the noise.
  2. To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
    • The light flashed on and off.
    • Eugenie's quick apprehensions seized the foul thought. Her eyes flashed—her cheek crimsoned. - 1841, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XIII, in Night and Morning […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London:...
    • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a...
  3. To be visible briefly.
    • The scenery flashed by quickly.
    • Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on...
  4. To make visible briefly.
    • A number will be flashed on the screen.
    • The special agents flashed their badges as they entered the building.
    • She flashed me a smile from the car window.
  5. To expose one's intimate body part or undergarment, often momentarily and unintentionally. (Contrast streak.)
    • She flashed a vocalist at a rock concert.
    • Her skirt was so short that she flashed her underpants as she was getting out of her car.
  6. To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
    • For although party's worn-out moulds have been shivered, and names which have flashed and thundered as the watchwords of unnumbered struggles for power are now fast waning into history, it is too much to hope, perhaps...
    • But while he jested thus, / A thought flashed through me, which I clothed in act. / Remembering how we three presented Maid, / Or Nymph, or Goddess, at high tide of feast, / In masque or pageant at my father's court. -...
    • The Isabella [Isabella, or the Pot of Basil], then, is a perfect treasure-house of graceful and felicitous words and images: almost in every stanza there occurs one of those vivid and picturesque turns of expression, by...
  7. To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
    • He flashed a wad of hundred-dollar bills.
  8. To communicate quickly.
    • The news services flashed the news about the end of the war to all corners of the globe.
    • to flash a message along the telephone wires; to flash conviction on the mind
  9. To move, or cause to move, suddenly.
    • Flash forward to the present day.
    • ⁠Deep folly! yet that this could be— ⁠That I could wing my will with might ⁠To leap the grades of life and light, And flash at once, my friend, to thee: […] - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam,...
    • But they survived some real pressure as David Murphy flashed a header inches wide of Rob Green's right-hand post[…]. - 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 – 1 Birmingham”, in BBC Sport, archived from the...
  10. To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.
    • Susan flashed Jessica, and then Jessica called her back, because Susan didn't have enough credit on her phone to make the call.
  11. To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
  12. To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.

Forms

flashes flashing flashed

Synonyms

glint beep

Related

flush gleam wardrobe malfunction

Derived

aflash flash around flashback flasher flash for cash flashforward flash forward flash-freeze flashing flashingly flashlight flash over flashover flash sideways flash the ash flash the cash flash up nonflashing outflash reflash unflashed unflashing upflash