flash
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: flăsh
ipa: /flæʃ/
rhymes: -æʃ
Forms: form: flashes
form: flashing
form: flashed
form: flashed
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: examples: text: He flashed the light at the water, trying to see what made the noise.
glosses: To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
examples: text: The light flashed on and off.
text: Eugenie's quick apprehensions seized the foul thought. Her eyes flashed—her cheek crimsoned.
ref: 1841, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XIII, in Night and Morning […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:
glosses: To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
examples: text: The scenery flashed by quickly.
text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 52:
glosses: To be visible briefly.
examples: text: A number will be flashed on the screen.
text: The special agents flashed their badges as they entered the building.
text: She flashed me a smile from the car window.
text: 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.
ref: 2020 September 14, Charlie Campbell, “'Thailand’s Inconvenient Truth.' Why This Billionaire Is Risking It All to Back Reform of the Monarchy”, in Time:
glosses: To make visible briefly.
examples: text: She flashed a vocalist at a rock concert.
text: Her skirt was so short that she flashed her underpants as she was getting out of her car.
glosses: To expose one's intimate body part or undergarment, often momentarily and unintentionally. (Contrast streak.)
examples: text: 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 to desire, until the education of mankind shall more nearly approach its completion, that strong differences of opinion and feeling should cease to agitate the scenes on which freemen are called to discharge political duties.
ref: 1845, Thomas [Noon] Talfourd, Report of the Proceedings Connected with the Grant Soirée of the Manchester Athenæum, Held on Thursday, October 23rd, 1845. From the Manchester Guardian of Saturday, October 25th, 1845. Printed for the Directors, Manchester: Cave and Sever, Printers, 18, St. Ann's Street, →OCLC, page 16:
text: 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.
ref: 1851, Alfred Tennyson, “The Princess: A Medley”, in Poems by Alfred Tennyson. In Two Volumes, new edition, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, page 163:
text: 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.
ref: 1856, Matthew Arnold, “Preface”, in Poems, new and complete edition, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 20:
glosses: To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
examples: text: He flashed a wad of hundred-dollar bills.
glosses: To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
examples: text: The news services flashed the news about the end of the war to all corners of the globe.
text: to flash a message along the telephone wires;  to flash conviction on the mind
glosses: To communicate quickly.
examples: text: Flash forward to the present day.
text: ⁠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: […]
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 62:
text: But they survived some real pressure as David Murphy flashed a header inches wide of Rob Green's right-hand post[…].
ref: 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 – 1 Birmingham”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2016:
glosses: To move, or cause to move, suddenly.
examples: text: Susan flashed Jessica, and then Jessica called her back, because Susan didn't have enough credit on her phone to make the call.
glosses: To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.
glosses: To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
raw_tags: of liquid
topics: climbing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
examples: text: In order to flash a custom ROM to a phone, the boot loader must be unlocked first.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To write to the memory of (an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge).
topics: business
glassmaking
manufacturing
glosses: To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
topics: business
glassmaking
manufacturing
glosses: To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
glosses: To send by some startling or sudden means.
glosses: To burst out into violence.
topics: arts
hobbies
juggling
lifestyle
performing-arts
sports
glosses: To perform a flash.
topics: engineering
metallurgy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
examples: text: 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: […]
ref: 1607, Antony Brewer [attributed; now generally believed to be by Thomas Tomkis], Lingua: Or, The Combat of the Tongue and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Comedy (A Select Collection of Old Plays; V), [London]: [Printed for R[obert] Dodsley], published [1744], →OCLC, act I, scene i, page 8:
glosses: To trick up in a showy manner.
examples: text: The varlet ſaw, when to the flood he came, / How without ſtop or ſtay he fiercely lept, / And deep himſelfe beducked in the ſame, / That in the lake his loftie creſt was ſteept, / Ne of his ſafetie ſeemed care he kept, / But with his raging armes he rudely flaſhd / The waves about, and all his armour ſwept, / That all the bloud and filth away was waſht, / Yet ſtill he bet the water, and the billows daſht.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed for W[illiam] Ponsonbie, OCLC 18024649, book II, canto VI, stanza XLII; republished as The Faerie Queene. By Edmund Spenser. With an Exact Collation of the Two Original Editions, Published by Himself at London in Quarto; the Former Containing the First Three Books Printed in 1590, and the Latter the Six Books in 1596. To which are Now Added, a New Life of the Author, and also a Glossary. Adorn'd with Thirty-two Copper-Plates, from the Original Drawings of the late W. Kent, Esq.; Architect and Principal Painter to His Majesty, volume I, London: Printed for J. Brindley, in New Bond-Street, and S. Wright, Clerk of His Majesty's Works, at Hampton-Court, 1751, OCLC 642577152, page 316
glosses: To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
examples: text: 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?"
ref: 1988 February 14, Marea Murray, “Friction Between The Factions”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 30, page 11:
glosses: To flash back.
Synonyms: sense: to briefly illuminate
word: glint
sense: telephoning
word: beep
Derived terms: 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
Related terms: word: flush
word: gleam
sense: to expose one's naked body or underwear
word: wardrobe malfunction