flash

Verb

flash (third-person singular simple present flashes, present participle flashing, simple past and past participle flashed)

1. (transitive) To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.

   He flashed the light at the water, trying to see what made the noise.

2. (intransitive) To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.

   The light flashed on and off.

   • 1841, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XIII, in Night and Morning […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC:

     Eugenie's quick apprehensions seized the foul thought. Her eyes flashed—her cheek crimsoned.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:

     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. (intransitive) To be visible briefly.

   The scenery flashed by quickly.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 52:

     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. (transitive) 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.

   • 2020 September 14, Charlie Campbell, “'Thailand’s Inconvenient Truth.' Why This Billionaire Is Risking It All to Back Reform of the Monarchy”, in Time‎:

     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. (transitive, intransitive, informal) 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. (figurative) To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1856, Matthew Arnold, “Preface”, in Poems, new and complete edition, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 20:

     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 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.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XL, page 62:

     ⁠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: […]

   • 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 – 1 Birmingham”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 18 March 2016:

     But they survived some real pressure as David Murphy flashed a header inches wide of Rob Green's right-hand post […].

10. (transitive) 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. (intransitive, of liquid) To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
12. (transitive, climbing) To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
13. (transitive, computing) 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.

14. (transitive, glassmaking) To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
15. (transitive, glassmaking) To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
16. (transitive) To send by some startling or sudden means.
17. (intransitive) To burst out into violence.
18. (juggling) To perform a flash.
19. (metallurgy) To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
20. (transitive, obsolete) To trick up in a showy manner.
    • 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:

      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: […]

21. (transitive, obsolete) To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
    • 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:

      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.

Noun

flash (countable and uncountable, plural flashes)

1. A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.

   Synonyms: gleam, glint

   Hypernym: light

2. A very short amount of time.

   Synonyms: instant, jiffy, twinkle; see also Thesaurus:moment

   Antonyms: aeon, spell; see also Thesaurus:eon

   • 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:

     [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.

   • 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1st American edition, Hartford, Conn., Chicago, Ill., Cincinnati, Oh.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 164:

     Quick—something must be done! done in a flash, too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention.

3. (colloquial, US) A flashlight; an electric torch.
   • 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:

     I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car.

4. (figuratively) A sudden and brilliant burst, as of genius or wit.
   • 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:

     [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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 2011 October 7, Phil McNulty, “Euro 2012: Montenegro 2 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 5 October 2016:

     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. (figurative, uncountable) Pizzazz, razzle-dazzle.

   Synonyms: elan, flair

   • 1970 March 29, Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Above all, they hate flash. Just as the English working class has always been, they are fiercely puritanical and abhor all forms of display.

   • 1989 December 24, Elizabeth Pincus, “Screwball Glitz And Revolt Against Misogyny”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 24, page 16:

     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.

   • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 390:

     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.

   Synonyms: moulding flash, molding flash

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

    I just got my first commando flash.

15. (computing, uncountable) Clipping 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.

16. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genera Artipe, Deudorix and Rapala.
17. A tattoo flash (example design on paper to give an idea of a possible tattoo).
18. The sudden sensation of being "high" after taking a recreational drug.
    • 1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:

      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.

    • 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:

      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 […]

    • 1976, Robert H. Coombs, Lincoln J. Fry, Patricia G. Lewis, Socialization in Drug Abuse, page 123:

      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.

19. Synonym of flashback (“recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug”)
    • 2021, Glenn Petersen, War and the Arc of Human Experience, page 129:

      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.

20. (dated) A newsflash.
    • 1931, George Seldes, Can These Things Be!, volume 25, page 274:

      The United Press got the flash "Germans declare martial law in Ruhr" […]

21. A brief exposure or making visible (of a smile, badge, etc).
    • 2015 October 27, Tim O'Rourke, Flashes, Scholastic Inc., →ISBN:

      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.

    • 2017 June 29, Ally Shields, Embers of Fire, Etopia Press, →ISBN:

      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 […]

    • 2018 October 3, Blaine Lee Pardoe, BattleTech Legends: Measure of a Hero, Catalyst Game Labs:

      She ended the question with a flash of a smile that took more energy than she'd ever thought a mere smile could.

22. The (intentional or unintentional) exposure of an intimate body part or undergarment in public.

    panty flash

    • 2005 September 1, Lisa Cach, Have Glass Slippers, Will Travel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 256:

      […] 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; […]

    • 2021 April 21, Tina Gray, Fantasy Lover, Pink Flamingo Media, →ISBN:

      “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 […]

23. (telecommunications) Short for hook flash.

Adjective

flash (comparative more flash, superlative most flash)

1. (British, Australia and New Zealand, slang) Expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.
   • 1892, Banjo Paterson, The Man from Ironbark:

     The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are,
     He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;

2. (UK, of a person) Having plenty of ready money.
3. (UK, of a person) Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
   • 1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 1:

     Bit of a flash git, don't you think?

4. (US, slang) Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
5. (slang, obsolete) Relating to thieves and vagabonds.

   the flash language: thieves' cant or slang

   flash notes: counterfeit banknotes

   • 1828, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Pelham, Or, Adventures of a Gentleman:

     Why, you would not be boosing till lightman's in a square crib like mine, as if you were in a flash panny?

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “flash”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• For the sense ‘a short period of time’, the 1858 Notes and Queries of Martim de Albuquerque was consulted. From page 437 of the sixth volume of the second series, published in London by Bell & Dally, 186 Fleet Street, in 1858 :

  Ought we not to collect for posterity the various ways in which very short times are denoted. Besides the one at the head, there are, — in no time, in next to no time, in less than no time, in a trice, in a jiffy, in a brace of shakes, before you can say Jack Robinson, in a crack, in the squeezing of a lemon, in the doubling of your fist, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, in an instant, in a flash.

Noun

flash (plural flashes)

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”).)
   • a. 1646, Jeremiah Burroughs, The Excellency of Holy Courage in Evil Times:

     their hearts lie lumpish as a Log that lies in a flash of water seven years together

   • 1895, The Naturalist, , page 232:

     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;

   • 1967, R. E. Bevan, Notes on the Science and Practice of the Controlled Tipping ..., page 40:

     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 resulting from deep mining, manufacturing and the generation of electric power; the flashes, swamps and hollows caused by mining subsidence; the hill-side scars made by chalk, limestone and hardrock quarrying; and the ruins of abandoned industrial buildings.^[2]

   • 1972, The Naturalist, numbers 920-935, page 127:

     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).

   • 1986, A Directory of Neotropical Wetlands, page 544:

     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.

   • 2016, Tim Dee, Four Fields, page 47:

     Spring waders passed through on migration, joining the fen to other flashes, marshes, rivers, seas and oceans, flying from Africa to Siberia and landing en route only where their feet might be covered with water.

2. (engineering) 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.

References

Derived terms

• flasher

Declension

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.