[f. FLASH v.1]
I. Burst of light or flame (and senses thence derived); cf. FLASH v.1 III.
1. A sudden outburst or issuing forth of flame or light; a sudden, quick, transitory blaze. Flash in the pan (see quot. 1810); fig. an abortive effort or outburst; cf. FLASH v.1 5 c.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas. I. 208. The good gentleman hearing this straung case, was astonned like one that had been stroken with a flashe of lightening.
1635. Swan, Spec. M., vi. (1643), 300. A spark by chance flew into the mortar, where catching hold of the brimstone and salt-peter, it fired with a sudden flash, and violently blew up the stone.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 712.
| Three flashes of blue Light’ning gave the sign | |
| Of Cov’nants broke, three peals of Thunder join. |
1705. Bosman, Guinea, xvii. 317–8. Missing his shot by a flash in the Pan, the Elephant grew so enraged, that he pursu’d, set on him and broke him and his Musquet to pieces.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 309. It being in the night, our men, who were very attentive with their eyes, as well as ears, saw plainly the three flashes of the guns, though they could not hear the report, the wind being contrary.
1810. James, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), Flash in the pan, an explosion of gunpowder without any communication beyond the touch-hole.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, lviii. I soon perceived that the gun-boats were nearing us every time that they fired, and I now discharged grape alone, waiting for the flash of the fire to ascertain their direction.
1858. Merc. Marine Mag., V. 60. It is a Fixed White Light, varied by a Red Flash every half minute.
b. slang. Flash of lightning: a glass of gin.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, 149.
1800. Sporting Mag., XVII. Oct., 34/2. Treated in a very handsome libation of that fashionable liquor, called flashes of lightning!
1830. Lytton, P. Clifford, II. iv. 112. The thunders of eloquence being hushed, flashes of lightning, or, as the vulgar say, ‘glasses of gin,’ gleamed about.
c. transf. The quick movement of a flag in signalling.
1870. Colomb & Bolton, Flashing Signals, 30. To make a short flash, the flag is moved from a to b, and back to the normal position a. To make a long flash, the flag is waved from a to c, and back to the normal position a.
2. transf. The brief period during which a flash is visible: † a. For a flash: for a brief moment; while the fit lasts (obs.). b. In a flash: immediately, instantaneously.
1625. Bacon, Ess. Greatness Kingd. (Arb.), 485. The Persians and Macedonians, had it for a flash.
1648. Milton, Tenure Kings (1650), 3. Most men are apt enough to civill Wars and commotions as a noveltie, and for a flash hot and active.
1801. Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1806), IX. 372. To the helm, my boy, in a flash.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., vi. 160. A thoroughly popular lecture ought to have nothing in it which five hundred people cannot all take in a flash, just as it is uttered.
3. A brief outburst or transient display of something regarded as resembling a flash of light.
1602. Shaks., Ham., V. i. 210. Your flashes of Merriment that were wont to set the Table on a Rore.
1652–62. Heylin, Cosmogr., III. (1673), 8/2. A brave flash of vain-glorious hospitality.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., v. iv. (1845), 309. An unseasonable disclosure of flashes of Wit, may sometimes do a Man no other service, than to direct his Adversaries how they may do him a mischief.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. xxxviii.
| But now there came a flash of hope once more; | |
| Day broke, and the wind lull’d: the masts were gone, | |
| The leak increased; shoals round her, but no shore, | |
| The vessel swam, yet still she held her own. |
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, ii. 27. A sort of flash of expectation passed over Lavender’s face, and he sprang to his feet.
4. Superficial brilliancy; ostentation, display; also † brilliant distinction, ‘éclat’ (obs.). † Phr. To cut a flash (cf. DASH sb. 10).
1674. S. Vincent, Yng. Gallant’s Acad., 97. Whose Entertainments to those of a higher rank are … not only flash and meer Complement.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 59, 8 May, ¶ 1. There is nothing more certain than that every Man would be a Wit if he could, and notwithstanding Pedants of pretended Depth and Solidity are apt to decry the Writings of a polite Author, as Flash and Froth, they all of them show upon Occasion that they would spare no Pains to arrive at the Character of those whom they seem to despise.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 119/1. Berry gave him a crown, as he said, to make a flash with to the boys.
1780. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, June (1891), I. 271. Miss Weston, whose delicacy gave way to gaiety and flash, whether she would or not.
1782. C. A. Burney, Jrnl., 15 Jan., in Mad. D’Arblay, Early Diary, II. 306. I had not a very entertaining evening, but I would not but have been there, for the flash of the thing.
1795. Fate of Sedley, I. 50. Some men … cut a flash without any fortune.
1827. R. H. Froude, Rem. (1838), I. 445. If I comply with my Father’s wishes, and enter freely into society, I shall have much harder work to fight off my old shuffling vanity, and shall be drawn, from not feeling my own ground, into foolishness and flash, and everything that is disgusting.
1880. T. E. Webb, trans. Goethe’s Faust, Prelude for the Theatre, 8.
| Mere flash a moment’s interest engages; | |
| The genuine, unforgotten, waits the Ages. |
† b. A piece of showy talk; a vain, empty phrase or vulgarism. Obs.
1605. B. Jonson, etc., Eastward Hoe, IV. i. Sir Petronell Flash, I am sory to see such flashes as these proceede from a Gentleman of your Quality and Rancke.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xii. (1851), 433. Hee next falls to flashes, and a multitude of words, in all which is contained no more, than what might be the plea of any guiltiest offender.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Flash … a Boast, Brag, or great Pretence made by a Spend-thrift, Quack, or Pretender to more Art or Knowledge than a Person has.
† 5. A brilliant or ‘showy’ person; usually in contemptuous sense, one vain of his accomplishments or appearance, a coxcomb, fop. Obs.
1603. B. Jonson, Sejanus, II. i.
| Such a spirit as yours, | |
| Was not created for the idle second | |
| To a poor flash, as Drusus. |
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., XI. lix. 200.
| Thou, inconsid’rate Flash, spend’st pretious Dayes | |
| In Dances, Banquets, Courtisms, Playes, | |
| To gain the Shade of Joy, which, soon as gaind, decayes. |
1677. Miege, Eng.-Fr. Dict., A Flash, an empty shallow-brained fellow.
1764. Low Life, 65. The Jemmies, Brights, Flashes, Puzzes, Pizzes, and Smarts of the Town, preparing to ride out in fives and sixes, and meet in the Evening at their several Houses of Appointment.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmagundi (1824), 78. Miss Laurelia Dashaway;—she is the highest flash of the ton—has much whim and more eccentricity, and has reduced many an unhappy gentleman to stupidity by her charms.
† 6. slang. A wig. Obs.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Flash, a Periwig.
1760. Bailey, vol. II. (ed. 5), Canting Words, Flash, a Peruke, Rum Flash, a long, full, high-priz’d Wig, Queer Flash, a sorry, weather-beaten Wig.
7. An ornament consisting of three short pieces of black velvet ribbon sewn to the collar of a full-dress tunic, and hanging down the back; supposed to be the remains of the bow which fastened the ‘queue.’ Now worn only by the officers of the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. (N. & Q., 8th Ser. VII. 20 April 1895).
1837. T. E. Hook, Jack Brag, III. iii. 115. The portrait of a stout, fresh-coloured young man, dressed in the uniform of some volunteer corps of cavalry, wearing flashes, with a profusion of well-powdered hair fluttering in the breeze.
8. A preparation of cayenne pepper or capsicum with burnt sugar, used for coloring spirits.
1820. Accum, Adult. Food, 10–1. I have known cases in which brandy merchants were not aware that the substance which they frequently purchase under the delusive name of flash, for strengthening and clarifying spirituous liquors, and which is held out as consisting of burnt sugar and isinglass only, in the form of an extract, is in reality a compound of sugar with extract of capsicum.
† 9. A small piece; ? a dash or sprinkling.
1615. Latham, Falconry, II. viii. 95. Put into it … one flash or two of Saffron, & a pretty piece of suger candy.
10. pl. The new shoots of a tea-plant.
1880. Eliot James, Indian Industries, xxviii. 344. The new shoots, or ‘flashes,’ as they are called, come on four, sometimes five times between April and October.
II. Sudden movement of liquids, etc. (cf. FLASH v. I).
† 11. A sudden movement of a body of water, a splash; a breaker. Obs.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., x. 47. Which make the Sea where it falleth rebound in flashes, exceeding high.
1632. Sherwood, A flash of water, gaschis d’eau.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., IV. xv. 246. The Miller of Berwick (three Miles from the Sea) attempting, with his Man, to secure his Mill, were so washed with Flashes of Sea-water, like the Breakings of Waves against the Rocks, that they were almost strangled therewith, and forced to give over their Attempt.
b. A sudden rush of water, let down from a weir, to take a boat over the shallows of a river.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., ix. § 46. 234. Were there a convenient number of Locks, or Holds for water, made in the River Cherwel above Oxford, to let down flashes as occasion should serve.
1689. S. Sewall, Diary, 19 March (1882), I. 302. Have Flashes to help them over the Shallow places.
1758. Binnell, Descr. Thames, 162. But this is a Charge only in Summer, and paid for Flashes, when the Water is low.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., To make a flash, is to let boats down through a lock.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., IV. 76/1. The substitution of a continuous navigation upon the upper Seine and Yonne by the aid of movable dams, for the intermittent navigation by flashes.
† 12. transf. A sudden burst of rain, wind, steam, etc.; a fit of activity, a spurt. Obs.
1653–4. Whitelocke, Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772), II. 362. Notwithstanding the calme, yett the wind being by flashes large, they went the last night and day before twenty leagues up and downe, sometimes in their course, and sometimes out of it.
1685. Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), III. 156. Waters extreame low, tho’ many flashes of raine. Rivers almost dried up. Water unwholsome for brewing. Few bath themselves this yeare.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Flash, a sudden Spurt.
1809. J. B. Dabney, in Naval Chron., XXI. 106–7. Some few, however, remained in the vicinity of it too long, endeavouring to save their furniture and effects, and were scalded by flashes of steam, which, without injuring their clothes, took off not only their skin but their flesh.
13. A contrivance for producing a ‘flash’ (senses 11, 11 b). (See quots. and FLASH-BOARD.)
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. 32. The miller, when he takes up his flashes, lays them it may be on the bank, goes whistling into his mill, and thinks no more till his grist is ground, for the water will work on for ever unless he shuts it out again: but the valves used by the mind fall back again of themselves when the mind withdraws her activity.
1841. Brees, Gloss. Civ. Engin., Flashes, a description of sluice, erected for the purpose of raising the water over any shoals while craft are passing.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, I. II. iv. 122. In some cases these drainage waters were conveyed under the New River in culverts, and in others over it by what were termed flashes. Note. The flash, which consisted of a wooden trough, about twelve feet wide and three deep, extending across the river.
III. attrib. and Comb.
14. a. simple attributive, as flash-lock, -mark, -water, -weir (senses 11, 11 b).
1788. Act 28 Geo. III., c. 51 § 14. All the old Flash Locks or Weirs thereon.
1791. W. Jessop, Rep. Navig. Thames & Isis, 9. Water at the flash mark 4ft. 6 on the Sill.
1793. R. Mylne, Rep. Thames, 29. The Time of Flash-waters coming down.
b. Special comb., as † flash-flown a., ? uttered in idle talk; flash-flue (see quot.); flash-lamp (Photogr.), a lamp used to give a flash-light; flash-light, (a) a light so arranged as to give forth sudden flashes, used for signals and in lighthouses; (b) Photogr. (see quot. 1890); flash-pan, (a) the pan in an old flint-lock for holding the priming by which the charge is exploded; (b) a small copper pan with a handle, in which powder is flashed as a signal (Cent. Dict.); flash-pipe (see quot. 1874); flash-point = flashing-point; flash-rim (see quot. 1867); flash-test, a test to determine the flashing-point of kerosene, etc.; flash-wheel (see quot.). Also FLASH-BOARD.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VIII. 339.
| Let not surmisers thinke, ambition led | |
| My second toyles, more *flash flowne praise to wed. |
1888. Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., *Flash Flue, the flue underneath an egg-end or similar externally fired boiler.
1890. Woodbury, Encycl. Photogr., 373. The third class of lamps, i.e., those used for exposing in making or exposing negatives, are principally the electric lamp, magnesium lamp, and *flash lamp.
1891. H. L. Webb, in Electr. in Daily Life, Making a Cable, 188. Flag-signalling had to be exchanged for flash-lamps.
1886. Scientific American, N. S., LIV. 9 Jan., 16/2. A *flash-light, that is to say, one which can be made to glow or disappear at pleasure, may be made to furnish the required number of movements.
1892. Woodbury, Encycl. Photogr., 289. Flashlight. Usually made by blowing magnesium powder through a small flame.
1892. Marg. Stokes, Six Months in Apennines, 163. The crypt was very dark, and I was compelled to photograph these most interesting bas-reliefs by the flash-light.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 877/1. *Flash-pipe. A mode of lighting gas by means of a supplementary pipe pierced with numerous small holes throughout its length.
1878. Ure’s Dict. Arts, Suppl. IV. 570. The legal *flash-point of petroleum.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Flash Rim, in carronades, a cup-shaped enlargement of the bore at the muzzle.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 877/2. *Flash-wheel. A water-raising wheel having arms radial or nearly so to its axle, and revolving in a chase or curved water-way by which the water passes from the lower to the higher level as the wheel rotates.
