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  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -æʃ
  • Hyphenation: flash

Etymology 1[edit]

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.


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

  1. To briefly illuminate a scene.
    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.
  3. To be visible briefly.
    The scenery flashed by quickly.
  4. To make visible briefly.
    A number will be flashed on the screen.
    The special agents flashed their badges as they entered the building.
  5. (figuratively) To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
    • Thomas Talfourd (1795–1854)
      names which have flashed and thundered as the watch words of unnumbered struggles
    • Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
      The object is made to flash upon the eye of the mind.
    • Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)
      A thought flashed through me, which I clothed in act.
  6. To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
    He flashed a wad of hundred-dollar bills.
  7. 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
  8. (computing) To write to the memory of an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge.
  9. (transitive, intransitive, informal) To briefly, and in most cases inadvertently, expose one's naked body or underwear, or part of it, in public. (Contrast streak.)
    Her skirt was so short that she flashed her underpants as she was getting out of her car.
  10. (metallurgy) To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
  11. (juggling) To perform a flash.
  12. To move, or cause to move, suddenly
    • 2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2-1 Birmingham”, BBC:
      But they survived some real pressure as David Murphy flashed a header inches wide of Rob Green's right-hand post [].
  13. (glassmaking) To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
  14. To trick up in a showy manner.
    • Antony Brewer (fl.1655)
      Limning and flashing it with various dyes.
  15. To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
  16. (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.
  17. (intransitive, of liquid) To evaporate suddenly. See Flash evaporation.
  18. (transitive, climbing) To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
  • (to briefly illuminate): glint
  • (telephoning): beep
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flash (plural flashes)

  1. A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.
  2. (figuratively) A sudden and brilliant burst, as of wit or genius.
    • Shakespeare
      the flash and outbreak of a fiery mind
    • Wirt
      No striking sentiment, no flash of fancy.
  3. (linguistics) A language, created by a minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class; for example, Ebonics.
  4. A very short amount of time.
    • Francis Bacon
      The Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash.
    • 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,
      Quick—something must be done! done in a flash, too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention.
      Fabio Capello insisted 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. Material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould.
  6. (Cockney) The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.
  7. (US, colloquial) A flashlight or electric torch.
    • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin 2011, p. 34:
      I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car.
  8. A light used for photography - a shortened form of camera flash.
  9. (juggling) A pattern where each prop is thrown and caught only once.
  10. (archaic) A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
  • (sudden, short, temporary burst of light): gleam, glint
  • (material left around the edge of a mould): moulding flash, molding flash
  • (very short amount of time): aeon
  • (sudden, short, temporary burst of light): light
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flash (comparative more flash, superlative most flash)

  1. (UK 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.
  4. (US, slang) Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.


Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English flasche, flaske; compare Old French flache, French flaque, which is of Germanic origin, akin to Middle Dutch vlacke (an estuary, flats with stagnant pools).


flash (plural flashes)

  1. A pool.
  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.
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From English


flash m (plural flashs)

  1. flash (burst of light)
  2. (photography) flash
  3. newsflash
  4. (juggling) flash

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