flash 
6. In electric lighting, to make (the carbon fila- 
ment) incandescent. Boo flashing*-, 3 Flashed 
glass, colored glass for windows ami the like, produced 
by the process uf flashing. See flashing , 1 (<). 
flash 1 (flash), H. [_<flashl, .] I. n. 1. A sud- 
den burst of flame or light ; a light instantane- 
ously appearing and disappearing; a gleam: 
as, a flash from a gun. 
The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance 
of ajbuft of lightning. Ezek. i. 14. 
Gui. Fear no more the lightning /as/1 ; 
Aro. Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone. 
Shah., Cymbeline, iv. 2 (song). 
Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires, 
The meteor drops, and in a. flash expires. 
Pope, Dunciad, iv. 634. 
What strikes the crown of tyrants down, 
And answers with its flash their frown? 
The Sword. M. J. Barry. 
2. A sudden burst of something regarded as 
resembling light in its effect, as color, wit, 
glee, energy, passion, etc. ; a short, vivid, and 
brilliant outburst ; a momentary brightness or 
show. 
The Jlash and out-hreak of a fiery mind ; 
A savageness in unreclaimed blood. 
Shak., Hamlet, ii. 1. 
Where be. . . your flashes ot merriment, that were wont 
to set the table on a roar? Shak., Hamlet, v. 1. 
But if so great & flash of joy and prosperity . . . should 
make them grow wanton and extravagant, what course 
then so likely to reclaim them as a series of smart and 
severe judgments one upon another? 
Stilling fleet , Sermons, I. xi. 
A flash of color like a flame passed over her face. 
Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, xxxiv. 
3. The time occupied by a flash of light ; a very 
short period ; a transient state ; an instant. 
The Persians and Macedonians had it for & flash. 
Bacon. 
The height of whose [earth's] enchanting pleasure 
Is but & flash? Quarles, Emblems, ii. 5. 
4. pi. The hot stage of a fever. [Prov. Eng.] 
5t. A showy or blustering person. 
The town is full 
Of these vain-glorious flashes. 
Shirley, Love in a Maze, i. 2. 
Fanaticks, and declamatory flashes. 
Milton, Reformation in Eng., i. 
6f. A quibble ; jugglery with words. 
He falls next to flashes, and a multitude of words, in all 
which is contain'd no more than what might be the Plea 
of any guiltiest Offender. Milton, Eikonoklastes, xii. 
7. A shoot of a plant. 
The new shoots [of the tea-plant], or flashes, as they are 
called, come on four, sometimes five times between April 
and October. 
A. G. F. Eliot James, Indian Industries, xxviii. 
8. A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, 
etc., used for coloring brandy and rum, and 
giving them a factitious strength A flash in the 
pan () An explosion of the priming in the lock-pan, 
the gun itself hanging fire. Hence (6) An unsuccessful 
effort or outburst; a brilliant endeavor followed by failure: 
said of an utterly abortive effort that has been made with 
much parade or confidence, of an ineffective outbreak of 
paseion, etc. Flash-flue. Seey!ei.=SyH. 1. Flare, etc. 
See flame, n. 
flash 2 (flash), v. [Also dial, flash ; < ME.flaskien, 
vlaskicn, dash (water), sprinkle. See extract. 
Origin uncertain ; an OF. *flasquer, with sense 
of OF. and F.flaquer, dash or throw water, etc., 
does not occur, but is suggested by the analogy 
of flaslfi, n., < OF. flache, with equiv. flasque, 
and flaque, mod. F. flaque, a pool: see flash*, 
n. In mod. use flash 2 is merged in flash 1 . Cf. 
fluslfi, v. .] I', trans. If. To dash (water); 
sprinkle. 
So schal the tliet schriveth him, . . . gif dust of lihte 
thouhtes windeth to swuthe [too much], flaskie teares on 
ham. . . . O the smele dust [on the fine dust], gif hit 
dusteth swuthe, heo vlasketh water theron and swopeth 
hit ut [sweepeth it out]. Ancren Riwle, p. 314. 
2f. To splash ; dash about, as water. 
With his raging arms he rudely flash'd 
The waves about, and all his armour swept, 
That all the blood and filth away was wash'd. 
Spenser, F. Q. 
3. To increase the flow of water in; flood with 
water from a reservoir or otherwise, as a stream 
or a sewer ; flush. See flashing 2 . 
II. intrans. To splash, as waves. 
The sea flashed up unto his legs and knees. 
Holinshed, Hist. Eng., p. 181. 
flash 3 (flash), n. [Also dial, flash; < ME. 
flasshe, flasche, flosshe, flosche, flesshe, also, 
without assibilation, flask, a pool of water, < 
OF. flache, also flasqite, and, without assibila- 
tiou, flat;, flaque, a pool, puddle, ditch, estuary, 
< OD. vlacke, an estuary, flats with stagnant 
pools, < vlack, D. vlak = OHG. flah, G. flach, 
flat, level; of. OBulg. plosku, flat.] 1. A pool 
of water. 
2255 
Plasche or flam-tic, where reyne watyr stondythe, ton-ens. 
lacuna. Pr<niti>t. Purr., p. 403. 
Yet still the dangerous dykes from shot do them secure, 
Where they [mallards, etc. ] from flash tu flash, like the full 
epicure, 
Waft, as they lov'd to change their diet every meal. 
Drayton, Polyolliion, xxv. 
2. A sluice or lock on a navigable river, just 
above a shoal, to raise the water while craft are 
passing. 
I was gone down with the barge to London ; and for 
want of -A flash, we lay ten weeks before we came again. 
Dialogue on Oxford Parliament, 16S1 (Harl. Misc., II. 116). 
3. [Prob. with allusion to flash!.} A body of 
water driven by violence. To make a flash, to let 
boats down through a lock. [Eng.] 
flash 4 t (flash), a. [Origin uncertain; prob. < 
flash 1 , v.} Insipid; vapid. 
Loath I am to mingle philosophical cordials with Di- 
vine, as water with wine, lest my consolation should be 
flash and dilute. S. Ward, Sermons, p. 63. 
flash 8 (flash), a. [Generally derivedfrom./Zas/t 1 , 
with which the sense of 'vulgarly showy or 
gaudy,' equiv. to flashy*, which is the prop. adj. 
of flash*, is no w associated ; but prob. of dif- 
ferent, though obscure, origin. See extract 
from Isaac Taylor.] 1. Of or pertaining to or 
associated with thieves, knaves, vagabonds, 
prostitutes, etc.: applied especially to thieves' 
cant or jargon. 
Many persons have confused the low gibberish in vogue 
with thieves and mendicants called flash with the Ro- 
many ; but that idea is absurdly wrong. 
N. and Q., 6th ser., IX. 504. 
In a wild district of Derbyshire, between Macclesfield 
and Buxton, there is a village called Flash, surrounded 
by uninclosed land. The squatters on these commons, 
with their wild gipsey habits, travelled about the neigh- 
bourhood from fair to fair, using a slang dialect of their 
own. They were called the Flash men, and their dialect 
Flash talk ; and it is not difficult to see the stages by 
which the word Flash has reached its present significa- 
tion. Isaac Taylor. 
2. Vulgarly showy or gaudy : as, a flash dress ; a 
flash style. 
The hotel does not assert itself very loudly, and if oc- 
casionally transient guests appear with flash manners, 
they do not affect the general tone of the region. 
C. D. Warner, Their Pilgrimage, p. 157. 
3. Expert; smart; crack. [Slang.] 
The flash riders, or horse breakers, always called "bron- 
co busters," can perform really marvelous feats, riding 
with ease the most vicious and unbroken beasts. 
T. Roosevelt, The Century, XXXV. 507. 
Flash language, thieves' cant ; thieves' slang. 
He gives a very interesting catalogue of some seventy 
words in the thieves' jargon, or flash language, which is 
thus shown to have come to this country in the last cen- 
tury. Harper's May., LXXVI. 611. 
Flash notes, forged or counterfeit notes. 
flasher 1 (flash'er), n. [< flash 1 + -er*.} 1. One 
who or that which flashes. Specifically 2. 
One who makes a show of more wit than he 
possesses. 
They are reckoned the flashers of the place ; yet every- 
body laughs at them for their airs, affectations, and tonish 
graces and impertinences. Mine. D'Arblay, Diary, I. 260. 
3. A hot boiler into which water is injected in 
small quantities and flashed into steam by the 
heat. 4f. A rower. 5. In ichth., an acan- 
thopterygian fish, the tripletail, Lobotes suri- 
namensis, of the family Lobotidce (which see) ; 
any lobotid. 
flasher 2 (flash'er), n. [See fluslier.'} Same as 
flusher. 
flash-house (flash'hous), n. [< flash 5 + house.'] 
A house frequented by thieves, vagabonds, and 
prostitutes, and in which stolen goods are re- 
ceived. 
The excesses of that age [time of Charles II.] remind us 
of the humours of a gang of footpads, revelling with their 
favourite beauties at a flash-house. 
Macaulay, Hallam's Const. Hist. 
flashily (flash'i-li), adv. In a flashy manner ; 
with sudden glare or force; without solidity 
of wit or thought ; with gaudy or ostentatious 
show. 
flashlness 1 (flash'i-nes), n. [< flashy! + -ness.'} 
The state of being flashy ; ostentatious gaudi- 
ness. 
flashiness 2 t (flash'i-nes), n. [< flashy^ + -ness. } 
Tastelessness; vapidness; insipidity. 
The same experiment may be made in artichokes and 
other seeds, when you would take away either their flashi- 
ness or bitterness. Bacon, Nat. Hist. 
flashing 1 (flash'ing), n. [Verbal n. of flash*, v.} 
1. In glass-making: (a) The reheating of partial- 
ly formed glassware in a flashing-furnace to re- 
store the plastic condition, and to smooth rough 
edges. (6) The act or process of heating a globe 
of blown glass, and giving it a rapid rotary 
motion, so that the opening already made in it 
flashy 
will widen till the globe flashes suddenly into a 
flat disk, (c) A mode of coating a globe of hot 
colorless glass with a film of colored glass, usu- 
ally red, and blowing them together until they 
flash into a disk. Such glass is called flush*! ; /'n--, <>r 
<ii,iilil> </ '/'"*'. anil is used 1'ur ilrenrative purposes, as in 
^lass-painting and ylass-staininj.', of the i -idlest as well as 
plainest sorts ; also to izh e alternation of color, by grind- 
ing away the color in a design or pattern. 
2. In arch., pieces of lead, zinc, or other metal, 
used to protect the joining when a roof comes in 
contact with a wall, or when a chimney-shaft 
or other object comes through a roof, and the 
like. The metal is let into a joint or groove cut in the 
wall, etc., and folded down so as to lap over the joining. 
When the flashing is folded down over the upturned edge 
of the lead of a gutter, it is in Scotland called an apron. 
3. In the manufacture of incandescent lamps, 
the operation of raising the carbon filament to 
incandescence in an atmosphere of coal-gas, 
for the purpose of hardening and smoothing 
the carbons, and equalizing their resistance. 
flashing 2 (flash'ing), n. [< flash*, n., + -ing*.} 
The act of creating an artificial flood in a con- 
duit or stream, as in a sewer for cleansing it, or 
at shallows in a river by penning up the water 
either in the river itself or in side reservoirs. 
See flushing. 
flashing-board (flash'ing-bord), n. A device 
for increasing the depth or force of a stream 
of water by diminishing its width, as a board 
set up on edge on the top of a mill-dam when 
the stream is low. 
flashing-bottle (flash'ing-bot"l), . A glass 
vessel in which carbon filaments for incandes- 
cent lamps are flashed. See flashing*, 3. 
flashing-furnace (flash'ing-fer"nas), n. A re- 
heating glass-furnace. See flashing*, 1. 
flashing-point (flash'ing-point), n. The tem- 
perature at which escaping vapor will ignite 
momentarily, or flash : distinguished from the 
fairning-point, at which the substance will itself 
take fire and burn : usually said of oils or hy- 
drocarbons. Also flash-point. 
As the oil appeared to have taken fire with extraordi- 
nary rapidity, it was assumed, in the first instance, that 
the flashing -point was below the parliamentary standard. 
Ure, Diet., IV. 570. 
flash-light (flash'lit), n. 1. A light so arranged 
as to emit sudden brilliant gleams, lasting but 
a short time : used for military signals and in 
lighthouses. See lighthouse. 
A-flash-Myht : that is to say, one which can be made to 
glow or disappear at pleasure. Sci. Amer., N. S., L1V. 16. 
2. A preparation emitting when ignited a sud- 
den and very brilliant light, used in taking in- 
stantaneous photographs at night or in a room 
insufficiently lighted by natural light, etc. It 
usually consists chiefly of a magnesium powder, 
sometimes in combination with guncotton. 
flashman (flash'man), n.; pi. flashinen (-men). 
[< flash 5 + man.'} A knave, especially one who 
tries to appear as a gentleman. [Slang.] 
You're playing a dangerous game, my flashman. . . . 
I've shot a man down for less than that. 
H. Kingsley, Geoff ry Hanilyn, v. 
flash-pan (flash'pan), . 1. The receptacle in 
a flint-lock which holds the priming by which 
the charge is exploded. See cut under flint- 
lock. 2. A small copper pan with a handle, 
in which powder is flashed as a signal. Also 
called flare-tin. 
flash-pipe (flash'pip), . A gas-pipe perforated 
throughout with small holes, used in lighting 
gas-burners. It has a stop-cock, on turning which gas 
is emitted from each orifice, and when one of these small 
jets is lighted the flame flashes along the pipe and lights 
the burners connected with it. When the stop-cock is 
closed the small jets are extinguished. 
flash-point (flash'point), n. Same as flashing- 
point. 
Young's Company now manufacture a lighthouse oil of 
150 Fahr. flash-point. Ure, Diet, IV. 569. 
flash-test (flash'test), n. A test to determine the 
flashing-point of kerosene or other volatile oil. 
flash-torch (flash'torch), n. Theat., a device 
by which the fine powdery spores of lycopodium 
are driven through flame to produce the effect 
of lightning. 
flash-wheel (flash'hwel), n. A water-raising 
wheel having arms radial, or nearly so, to its 
axle, as in the common paddle-wheel, it is set 
in a trough containing water, nearly fitting it throughout 
one quarter or less of its circumference, and raises the 
water from the level of its lower side to greater elevation. 
flashy 1 (flash'i), a. [< flash* + -y*.} 1. Like a 
flash : characterized by flashes or flashing ; spe- 
cifically, acting by flashes, or by fits and starts ; 
quick ; impulsive ; fiery. [Now rare in this lit- 
eral sense.] 
