flash
verbnounadjectivenouncommon in dialogue
- //flæʃ//
To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
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.
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 crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
- 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 the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
- 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.
Today, people are taking to the street once again. Clad in face masks, and flashing the three-fingered Hunger Games salute to the sound of Thai rap, thousands of protesters have thronged the capital over recent months, demanding political reform of a military-backed government seen as bungling and corrupt.
- 5
informalTo 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
figurativeTo break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
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 which the object is made to flash upon the eye of the mind, and which thrill the reader with a sudden delight.
- 7
To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
He flashed a wad of hundred-dollar bills.
- 8
To flaunt; to display in a showy manner. To show a gang sign or similar hand gesture.
I knew he was serious when he flashed a Bloods sign.
- 9
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
- 10
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: […]
But they survived some real pressure as David Murphy flashed a header inches wide of Rob Green's right-hand post[…].
- 11
datedTo 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.
- 12
To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
- 13
To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
- 14
To write to the memory of (an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge).
In order to flash a custom ROM to a phone, the boot loader must be unlocked first.
- 15
To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
- 16
To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
- 17
To send by some startling or sudden means.
- 18
To burst out into violence.
- 19
To perform a flash.
- 20
To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
- 21
obsoleteTo trick up in a showy manner.
Oft have I ſeaſoned ſavory periods / With ſugar'd words, to delude Guſtus' taſte, / And oft embelliſh'd my entreative phraſe, / Limning and flaſhing it with various dyes, / To draw proud Viſus to me by the eyes: […]
- 22
obsoleteTo strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
- 23
To flash back.
Kevin, one of the first buddies in Boston lies calmly, very thin in the casket. I think of his face angrily making a point at a meeting or happily hosting his Christmas party. I flash to my father's wake and the "well-meaning" people who whispered about how awful he looked as I stood by watching, wanting to scream "What did you expect?"
Etymology
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”).
noun
- 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 of the most spectacular of the century."
- 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 that Scope and End. The Perſians and Macedonians had it for a flaſh. The Galls, Germans, Goths, Saxons, Normans, and others had it for a time.
Quick—something must be done! done in a flash, too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention.
- 3
A flashlight; an electric torch.
I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car.
- 4
figurativeA 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.
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 kicked out at Miodrag Dzudovic – suggested otherwise.
- 5
figurativePizzazz, 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.
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.
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 music.
- 6
Material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould.
- 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
archaicA preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
- 11
A form of military insignia.
I just got my first commando flash.
- 12
Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genera Artipe, Deudorix and Rapala.
- 13
A tattoo flash (example design on paper to give an idea of a possible tattoo).
- 14
The sudden sensation of being "high" after taking a recreational drug.
At three-thirty that afternoon Max, Tom, and Sharon placed tabs under their tongues and sat together in the living room to wait for the flash.
A few seconds following the injection, the user experiences a sudden, intense generalized sensation which has both physiological and psychological characteristics. […] pure, commercially produced products do not give a good flash […]
The flash — the odd combination of a cocoon-comfort and an inexplicable physical ascendency to a "high" — provides the major incentive for the new experimenter to move to the next phase of his career.
- 15
Synonym of flashback (“recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug”).
I'd heard about LSD and wanted to try it early on, but I'd also heard of delayed reactions, called acid flashes, brought on by unexpected stimuli; they could prove fatally disorienting.
- 16
datedA newsflash.
The United Press got the flash "Germans declare martial law in Ruhr" […]
- 17
A brief exposure or making visible (of a smile, badge, etc).
I didn't need them anymore. The police badge worked like a dream with both Alice and Kerry. One quick flash of the badge, and they were in the car and out of the rain. No questions asked.
Gabriel grabbed her wrist and spun her around, stepping forward right in her face, showing a brief flash of fangs this time. “Not good enough. I can haul you over my shoulder if that's the way it has to be.” “I'd almost like to see you[…]
She ended the question with a flash of a smile that took more energy than she'd ever thought a mere smile could.
- 18
The (intentional or unintentional) exposure of an intimate body part or undergarment in public.
panty flash
[…] the answer came to her. Camera flashes. That strobing light had been the flash of a camera. Icy panic poured through her body. She had a vision of Janet Jackson's boob flash at the Super Bowl;[…]
“Would you like a boob flash?” Hundred token tips began to flow in. “Thanks guys, and she read off the user names. That deserves more than just a flash.” She pulled up the hem of her top and turned left and right giving them a great show[…]
- 19
Variant of camera flashClipping of camera flash (“a device used to produce a flash of artificial light to help illuminate a scene”).
- 20
Variant of flash memoryClipping of flash memory.
The hybrid drive has 500 gigabytes of hard disk space for bulk storage and 2 gigabytes of high-speed flash for caching frequently-accessed files.
- 21
Variant of hook flashEllipsis of hook flash.
adjective
- 1
slangExpensive-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;
- 2
Having plenty of ready money.
- 3
Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
Bit of a flash git, don't you think?
- 4
slangOccurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
- 5
obsoleteRelating 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?
noun
- 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
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;
In breeding season the important [...] sites are distributed along the Dearne and Don on the flashes, marshes, ponds and oxbows, in the carrs around Doncaster, and the flooded gravel pits at Blaxton, Finningley, Sutton and Lound (see fig. 3).
A saline coastal lagoon, up to 3m deep, behind a sand bar, with brackish marshes (flashes) and mangrove swamps. The lagoon has now been permanently opened to the sea.
- 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.
Etymology
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
- plural
- flashes
- comparative
- more flash
- superlative
- most flash
- past tense
- flashed
- past participle
- flashed
- present participle
- flashing
- third person singular
- flashes
flash · To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
Flash · A multimedia platform, most often used for adding animation…flashback · A dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into…flashing · A sudden blazing or bursting, as of fire or water.