flash
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: flăsh
ipa: /flæʃ/
rhymes: -æʃ
Forms: form: flashes
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”).
Senses: synonyms: gleam
glint
hypernyms: light
glosses: A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.
examples: text: [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.
ref: 1680, Francis Bacon, “Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates”, in The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St Alban. With a Table of the Colours of Good & Evil. Whereunto is Added The Wisdom of the Antients. Enlarged by the Honourable Author Himself; and Now More Exactly Published, London: Printed by M[ary] Clark, for Samuel Mearne, in Little Britain, John Martyn, in St. Pauls Church-yard, and Henry Herringman, in the New Exchange, →OCLC, pages 111–112:
text: Quick—something must be done! done in a flash, too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention.
ref: 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1st American edition, Hartford, Conn.; Chicago, Ill.; Cincinnati, Oh.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 164:
synonyms: word: instant
word: jiffy
word: twinkle
word: bat of an eye
word: bit
word: blink of an eye
word: crack
word: eyeblink
word: flash
word: glimpse
word: half a mo
word: instant
word: jiff
word: jiffy
word: jot
word: minute
word: mo
word: moment
word: New York minute
word: New York second
word: no time
word: sec
word: second
word: span
word: split-second
word: spurt
word: stound
word: tick
word: trice
word: twink
word: twinkle
word: twinkling
word: while
antonyms: word: aeon
word: spell
word: jiffy
word: moment
word: never in a month of Sundays
glosses: A very short amount of time.
examples: text: I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car.
ref: 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, OCLC 747046957; republished London: Penguin Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-241-95628-1, page 34
glosses: A flashlight; an electric torch.
examples: text: [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.
ref: 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene i, page 259:
text: 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 flash of fancy, no remarkable beauty or strength of expression; and no indication, however slight, either of that impassioned love of liberty, or of that adventurous daring and intrepidity, which marked, so strongly, his future character.
ref: 1817, William Wirt (Attorney General), “section I”, in Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by James Webster, No. 10, S. Eighth Street. William Brown, printer, Prune-street, →OCLC, page 6:
text: 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.
ref: 2011 October 7, Phil McNulty, “Euro 2012: Montenegro 2 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 05 Oct 2016:
glosses: A sudden and brilliant burst, as of genius or wit.
examples: text: Above all, they hate flash. Just as the English working class has always been, they are fiercely puritanical and abhor all forms of display.
ref: 1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: 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.
ref: 1989 December 24, Elizabeth Pincus, “Screwball Glitz And Revolt Against Misogyny”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 24, page 16:
text: 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.
ref: 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 390:
synonyms: elan
flair
glosses: Pizzazz, razzle-dazzle.
synonyms: moulding flash
molding flash
glosses: Material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould.
glosses: The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.
topics: arts
hobbies
juggling
lifestyle
performing-arts
sports
glosses: A pattern where each prop is thrown and caught only once.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A language, created by a minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class.
topics: arts
hobbies
lifestyle
photography
glosses: Clipping of camera flash (“a device used to produce a flash of artificial light to help illuminate a scene”).
glosses: A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
examples: text: I just got my first commando flash.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A form of military insignia.
examples: text: 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.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Clipping of flash memory.
glosses: Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genera Artipe, Deudorix and Rapala.
glosses: A tattoo flash (example design on paper to give an idea of a possible tattoo).
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
text: 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 […]
ref: 1973, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Proper and Improper Use of Drugs by Athletes: Hearings, page 645:
text: 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.
ref: 1976, Robert H. Coombs, Lincoln J. Fry, Patricia G. Lewis, Socialization in Drug Abuse, page 123:
glosses: The sudden sensation of being "high" after taking a recreational drug.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2021, Glenn Petersen, War and the Arc of Human Experience, page 129:
glosses: Synonym of flashback (“recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug”).
synonyms: word: flashback
extra: recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug
examples: text: The United Press got the flash "Germans declare martial law in Ruhr" […]
ref: 1931, George Seldes, Can These Things Be!, volume 25, page 274:
glosses: A newsflash.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2015 October 27, Tim O'Rourke, Flashes, Scholastic Inc., →ISBN:
text: 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[…]
ref: 2017 June 29, Ally Shields, Embers of Fire, Etopia Press, →ISBN:
text: She ended the question with a flash of a smile that took more energy than she'd ever thought a mere smile could.
ref: 2018 October 3, Blaine Lee Pardoe, BattleTech Legends: Measure of a Hero, Catalyst Game Labs:
glosses: A brief exposure or making visible (of a smile, badge, etc).
examples: text: panty flash
text: […] 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;[…]
ref: 2005 September 1, Lisa Cach, Have Glass Slippers, Will Travel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 256:
text: “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[…]
ref: 2021 April 21, Tina Gray, Fantasy Lover, Pink Flamingo Media, →ISBN:
glosses: The (intentional or unintentional) exposure of an intimate body part or undergarment in public.
topics: communications
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
telecommunications
glosses: Ellipsis of hook flash.
Derived terms: 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
flashcrowd
flash crowd
flashcube
flash cut
flashdamp
flash disk
flash door
flash drive
flash drought
flashfic
flash fiction
flashfire
flash flood
flash flooding
flash frame
flash freezer
flash freezing
flash-fry
flash fuel
flash grenade
flash gun
flashgun
flash house
flash in the pan
flash-lag effect
flash-lag illusion
flashlamp
flashless
flashlet
flashlike
flashline
flash lock
flashly
flashman
flash memory
flashmob
flash mob
flash mobber
flashness
flash pack
flashpacking
flash pan
flash paper
flash photography
flash point
flashpoint
flashpot
flash powder
flashproof
flash rob
flash roll
flash sale
flash suppressor
flash test
flash-to-bang time
flashtube
flashy
flipflash
green flash
gunflash
helium flash
hot flash
hot-flash
in a flash
microflash
mitoflash
multiflash
news flash
patter flash
photoflash
preflash
quick as a flash
radioflash
ring flash
side flash
synchroflash
thunderflash
welder's flash
xenon flash lamp
Related terms: glimmer
shimmer
sparkle
twinkle