flash
Part of speech: verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: arts
business
climbing
computing
engineering
glassmaking
hobbies
juggling
lifestyle
manufacturing
mathematics
metallurgy
natural-sciences
performing-arts
physical-sciences
sciences
sports
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”).
Inflected forms:
form: flashes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: flashing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: flashed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: flashed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: more flash
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most flash
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He flashed the light at the water, trying to see what made the noise.
gloss: To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To be visible briefly.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To make visible briefly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To expose one's intimate body part or undergarment, often momentarily and unintentionally. (Contrast streak.)
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
informal
examples: 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.
gloss: To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
pos: verb
examples: He flashed a wad of hundred-dollar bills.
gloss: To communicate quickly.
pos: verb
examples: 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
gloss: To move, or cause to move, suddenly.
pos: verb
examples: 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[…].
gloss: To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.
pos: verb
tags: dated
transitive
examples: Susan flashed Jessica, and then Jessica called her back, because Susan didn't have enough credit on her phone to make the call.
gloss: To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To write to the memory of (an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: In order to flash a custom ROM to a phone, the boot loader must be unlocked first.
gloss: To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To send by some startling or sudden means.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To burst out into violence.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To perform a flash.
pos: verb
gloss: To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
pos: verb
gloss: To trick up in a showy manner.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: 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: […]
gloss: To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To flash back.
pos: verb
examples: 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?"
gloss: Expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.
pos: adj
tags: Australia
British
New-Zealand
slang
examples: The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are,
He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;
gloss: Having plenty of ready money.
pos: adj
tags: UK
gloss: Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
pos: adj
tags: UK
examples: Bit of a flash git, don't you think?
gloss: Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
pos: adj
tags: US
slang
gloss: Relating to thieves and vagabonds.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
slang
examples: 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?
Synonyms: beep
Related words: flush
gleam
Derived words: 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
Translations: