Flash v.¹

Forms: 4–5 flas(s)(c)he, 6– flash. [app. of onomatopœic origin; with senses 1–2 cf. plash, dash, splash; the 13th c. variant FLASK has been referred to an alleged OF. *flasquer, a supposed older form of Fr. flaquer. With sense 4 cf. flap and slash. The use of the word to express movement of fire or light (branch III), which is now the most prominent application, has not been found (unless in one doubtful example) before the second half of the 16th c. It seems to have originated in a transferred or extended use of sense 1; the coincidence of the initial sounds with those of flame may have helped the development of sense; cf. Sw. dial. flasa, Eng. dial. flaze, to blaze.]

  I.  Expressing movement of a liquid.

  1.  intr. Of the sea, waves, etc.: To rush along the surface; to rise and dash, esp. with the tide. Also with up. In later use with mixture of sense 9.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), Ibid., II. 369. Þe wawes of þe see Siculus, þat flascheþ and wascheþ vppon a rokke þat hatte Scylla.

1577–87.  Holinshed, Chron., I. 181/2. The sea keeping hir course, rose still higher and higher, and ouerflowed not only the kings feete, but also flashed vp vnto his legs & knees.

1613.  W. Browne, Brit. Past. II. iii.

1634–5.  Brereton, Trav. (1844), I. 166. Sometimes the waves flashed into the ship at the loop-holes at stern.

1727–46.  Thomson, Summer, 596.

1833.  M. Scott, Tom Cringle (1859), xvii. 473. The roaring surf was flashing up over the clumps of green bushes and thundering on the seaward face.

1834.  Medwin, Angler in Wales, II. 245–6. The Tivy, whose raging torrent, as it flashed in a sheet of foam through the chasm, revealed the height at which they stood, and set up a hoarse and subterranean voice, whose tones sounded in his ears like the tolling of a funeral knell.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., lxx. 15.

  † 2.  trans. To dash or splash (water) about, abroad, upon something. Obs. exc. with mixture of sense 11.

c. 1460.  J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 985.

1528.  Paynell, Salerne’s Regim., H b. The spume [froth of wine] to be thynne and soone flashed.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. vi. 42.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 266. Somewhat before a tempest, if the sea-water bee flashed with a sticke or Oare, the same casteth a bright shining colour, and the drops thereof resemble sparckles of fire, as if the waues were turned into flames, which the Saylers terme Briny.

1611.  Cotgr., Gascher, to dash, plash, flash (as water in rowing).

1638.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 20. The wave flashing upon our decks so much salt water as soundly washt us all.

1813.  Scott, Rokeby, II. vi. 11.

  3.  trans. To send a ‘flash’ or rush of water down (a river); also absol. Also, to send (a boat) down by a flash.

1791.  W. Jessop, Rep. Navig. Thames & Isis, 20. Every inch that can be gained upon so large a surface will save much time and water in flashing from above, and add much to the effect of flashing downwards.

1840.  Mrs. Browning, Drama Exile, Poems (1889), I. 69.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 876/2. Flashing.… The gunboats were flashed over the falls at Alexandria by means of a wing-dam made of log cribs filled in with stone.

  † II.  4. trans. To slash, strike swiftly; also, to dash, throw violently down. Obs.

a. 1400[?].  Morte Arth., 4238.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke iv. 35. With much great roaryng flashyng hym on the grounde.

  III.  With reference to fire or light.

  5.  intr. Of fire or light: To break forth suddenly. Of lightning; To break forth repeatedly, to play. Of a combustible, a gun, etc.: To give out flame, or sparks; to burst into flame. Also with about, off, out, up, etc.

  The first quot. is difficult; possibly it gives a transferred use of sense 1. The passage is our only example of branch III before 16th c.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 12498.

1548.  [see FLASHING ppl. a. 1].

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., V. v. 8.

1618.  Elton, Exp. Rom. vii. (1622), 214. They shall feele the flames of Hell flashing vp in their owne soules.

1650.  S. Clarke, Eccl. Hist. (1654), I. 9. Having ended his Prayer, the tormentors kindled the fire. The flame vehemently flashed about; which was terrible to the beholders.

1661.  Boyle, Phys. Ess., Salt Petre, § 21. 121. The Nitre will immediately take fire, and flash out into blewish and halituous flames.

1791.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, viii. The lightning began to flash along the chamber.

1858.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1865), I. III. xi. 206. The gun flashed off with due outburst, and almost with due effect.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. ii. 12. Lightning flashed about the summits of the Jungfrau, and thunder ‘leaped’ among her crags.

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, III. 198.

  b.  Of a hydro-carbon: To give forth vapor at a temperature at which it will ignite.

1890.  Daily News, 22 Oct., 5/5. The low temperature at which both flashed.

  c.  To flash in the pan: lit. said of a gun, when the priming powder is kindled without igniting the charge; fig. to fail after a showy effort, to fail to ‘go off.’

1687.  Settle, Refl. Dryden, 20. If Cannons were so well bred in his Metaphor as only to flash in the Pan, I dare lay an even wager that Mr. Dryden durst venture to Sea.

1737.  Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 320. It [Fowling-Piece] will occasion it oft-times to flash in the Pan a great while before it goeth off; by which Means the Fowl are alarmed, and so escape.

1792.  Gouv. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), I. 377. Their Majesties flashed in the pan yesterday morning, which occasioned the resignation of the Ministry.

1830.  Galt, Lawrie T., III. ix. (1849), 114. Flashing in the pan scares ducks.

1852.  W. Jerdan, Autobiog., IV. xiii. 237. Hook squibbed off a few pleasantries, and Cannon attempted a joke which flashed in the pan.

  † 6.  trans. ? To scorch with a burst of hot vapor. Obs. rare^–1.

1600.  Holland, Livy, XXVIII. xxiii. 685. Others flashed and half senged with the hote steem of the vapour and breath issuing from the light fire.

  7.  intr. To emit or reflect light with sudden or intermittent brilliance; to gleam. Said also of the eyes.

1791.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, ii. The almost expiring light flashed faintly upon the walls of the passage, shewing the recess more horrible.

1820.  Shelley, Lett. to M. Gisborne, 280.

1834.  Medwin, Angler in Wales, I. 268. I observed a large fish make two or three rapid zigzags, that flashed each like a plate of silver.

1854.  Tennyson, Charge Light Brigade, iv.

1857.  Holland, Bay Path, xviii. 207. She watched the minister closely, and as she faintly comprehended the terrible epithets he was heaping upon her father, her eyes flashed, the old bright spark began to burn on either cheek, and she only wanted action to be the highest impersonation of a fury; and this condition did not remain long unsupplied.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. vii. 26. The sufferings of the hart panting for the water-brooks, the pangs of the timid hare falling helpless into the jaws of her pursuers, the struggles of the helpless bird grasped in the talons of the resistless hawk, afforded as keen a delight to the prince who had never seen steel flash in earnest, as ever they did to men whom a life of constant warfare in a rude age had taught to look lightly on the sufferings and death even of their own kind.

  8.  trans. To emit or convey (light, fire, etc.) in a sudden flash or flashes. Also with forth, out.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 274.

1639.  S. Du Verger, trans. Camus’ Admir. Events, 100. Yet ere he thundred by deeds he flasht out lightning by threats.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, VIII. 36.

1744.  Gray, Let., Poems (1775), 176.

1842.  Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 185.

  transf. and fig.  1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 348.

1665.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 179. Who flashes him this thundring retort, For thy ambition.

1854.  J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), IV. xxi. 397. The indignation of Napoleon was now roused to the highest pitch. All the gigantic force and energy of his lofty nature burst forth like a volcano. His eyes flashed fire. His face glowed with an almost superhuman expression of intellect and of determination.

  b.  To send back as a flash from a mirror; to reflect. More fully to flash back.

1716.  Pope, Iliad, VIII. 54.

1808.  J. Barlow, The Columbiad, V. 201.

1808.  Scott, Marm., I. i.

  c.  transf. To cause to appear like a flash of lightning; to send forth swiftly and suddenly. Also with out. Const. in, into, on or upon.

1589.  Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 32. Shee perceiuing, flashed out such a blush from her alabaster cheeks that they lookt like the ruddie gates of the Morning.

1638.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 105. His name would flash terrour into the hearts of his most potent adversaries.

1700.  Farquhar, Constant Couple, V. iii. Methinks the motto of this sacred pledge should flash confusion in your guilty face.

1794.  Coleridge, Death Chatterton, vi. Thy native cot she flash’d upon thy view.

1813.  Shelley, Q. Mab, III. 145.

  d.  To flash dead: to strike dead with a flash.

1682.  Dryden & Lee, Duke of Guise, IV. iii.

1690.  Dryden, Don Seb., III. i.

  9.  intr. To come like a flash of light; to burst suddenly into view or perception. Also with forth, in, out, etc.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., III. ii. 5.

1683.  Dryden, Life Plutarch, I. 118. Those [arguments] of the Roman, drawn from wit, flash immediately on your imagination, but leave no durable effect.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xxxiv. 281. A martial ardour flashed from the eyes of the warriors, who were impatient for battle.

1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xv. At last, a sudden recollection seemed to flash upon him, for he stared at the stranger with such an air of blank amazement and alarm, that he walked up to him.

1856.  Masson, Ess., v. 165. In 1720, however, he [Swift] again flashed forth as a political luminary, in a character that could hardly have been anticipated—that of an Irish patriot.

1861.  Thackeray, Four Georges, iii. (1876), 75. To have had Garrick flashing in with a story from his theatre!

1866.  Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., xi. (1867), 111. Molly’s colour flashed into her face. She did not want an assurance of her own father’s love from this strange woman.

1874.  Burnand, My Time, viii. 68. It flashed across me that almost the last name I had heard in the office was this identical one of Wingrove.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 186. Upon the application of the iron-developing solution the picture flashes out almost instantly, and is thin or veiled, all the details being equally developed over the whole surface, but without density and brilliance.

  b.  To move like a flash, pass with lightning speed. Also with cognate obj. To flash its way.

1821.  Shelley, Hellas, 954.

1839–40.  W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 151. The French intellect is quick and active. It flashes its way into a subject with the rapidity of lightning, seizes upon remote conclusions with a sudden bound, and its deductions are almost intuitive.

1859.  Kingsley, Misc. (1860), II. 141. The lurchers flashed like grey snakes after the hare.

1877.  Black, Green Past., ii. (1878), 11. The swallows dipped and flashed, and circled over the bosom of the lake.

  10.  To break out into sudden action; to pass abruptly into a specified state. Also with forth, out.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, I. iii. 4.

1709.  H. Felton, Diss. Classics (1713), 8–9. In some Persons, who have run up to Men without a liberal Education, we may observe many great Qualities darken’d and eclips’d; their Minds are crusted over like Diamonds in the Rock, they flash out sometimes into an irregular Greatness of Thought, and betray in their Actions an unguided Force, and unmanaged Virtue; something very Great and very Noble may be discerned, but it looketh cumbersome and awkward, and is alone of all Things the worse for being natural.

1859.  Tennyson, Idylls, Enid, 273.

1862.  G. P. Scrope, Volcanos, 39. The moment, however, that an opening is made in the enclosing vessel, reducing the pressure to that of the atmosphere only, it [water] flashes instantly into steam with explosive violence.

1873.  Symonds, Grk. Poets, vii. 189. Assuming the hegemony of Hellas, to which she [Athens] was foredestined by her spiritual superiority, she flashed in the supreme moment which followed the battle of Salamis into the full consciousness of her own greatness.

1877.  A. H. Green, Phys. Geol., 219. At last an outlet is gained, and then with a tremendous burst the imprisoned steam flashes forth in repeated explosions.

1883.  Stevenson, Treasure Isl., III. xiv. At this poor Tom flashed out like a hero.

  b.  To flash up: to burst into sudden passion or anger.

1822.  Scott, Fam. Let., 25 June (1894), II. xviii. 143. We Scotch are a very hot generation, and though we do not flash up in an instant like Paddy, our resentments are much more enduring, and Boswell’s death will be long remembered and perhaps revenged.

  11.  trans. To cause to flash; to kindle with a flash; to draw or wave (a sword) so as to make it flash.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., VIII. 375. We eyther shot oft a Harquebuse, or else flashed some powder in the Ayre, the smell whereof, no ravenous beast can abide.

1709.  Brit. Apollo, II. No. 7. 2/2. Light the Spirits, if they are Proof, after they have burnt down to the Gun-powder, they will flash off the Gun-powder, and it cannot be suppos’d that the least Sparkle will Issue from the Spirits.

1801.  Southey, Thalaba, V. xxxvi.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 155. When employed for culinary purposes, it [oil] is, however, usually flashed; a few drops of water make it deflagrate, and thus a considerable part of the rank flavour which it possesses is taken off.

1850.  Kingsley, Alt. Locke, v. (1876), 60. I felt a strong grip on my collar, and turning round, had a policeman’s lantern flashed in mys face.

1880.  Encycl. Brit., XI. 325/2. Sometimes a small portion [of gunpowder] is roughly granulated, and ‘flashed’ on plates of glass or porcelain; a good powder should flash off, leaving nothing but some smoke marks, but if badly incorporated, the plate will be coated with specks or beads of solid residue.

  † b.  To illuminate intermittently; transf., to make resplendent with bright colors. Obs. or arch.

1607.  A. Brewer, Lingua, I. i.

1861.  Buckle, Civiliz., II. 189. The storms and the mists, the darkened sky flashed by frequent lightning, the peals of thunder reverberating from mountain to mountain, and echoing on every side, the dangerous hurricanes, the gusts sweeping the in numerable lakes with which the country is studded, the rolling and impetuous torrent flooding the path of the traveller and stopping his progress, are strangely different to those safer and milder phenomena, among which the English people have developed their prosperity, and built up their mighty cities.

1894.  E. H. Barker, Two Summers in Guyenne, 71. A very abrupt ascent through thickets brought me to the tableland, where the turf was flashed with splendid flowers of the purple orchis.

  12.  To express, utter, or communicate by a flash or flashes; esp. in modern use, to send (a message) along the wires of a telegraph.

1789.  Cowper, Ann. Mirab., 55.

1813.  Shelley, Q. Mab, V. 119.

1847.  Tennyson, The Princess, Prol. 78.

1858.  Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xvii. 459. The cannon, freshly mounted, flashed their welcome through the darkness.

1888.  Burgon, Lives of Twelve Good Men, II. v. 69. The intelligence was flashed next day all over England, awakening a pang of genuine sorrow in many a parsonage, and causing thousands to go about their Sunday work with a heavy heart.

  13.  intr. To make a flash or display, cut a figure, show off. Also, to flash it (about or away). Now colloq. or slang.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, II. i. 32.

1652.  C. B. Stapylton, Herodian, VII. 115.

1697.  Collier, Est. Mor. Subj., I. iii. 130. Philot. Methinks ’tis fine to seem above the Impressions of Fear, and to Flash in the Face of Danger.

1780.  Mrs. Thrale, in Mad. D’Arblay, Diary & Lett., 29 June (1842), I. 409. My master, however, is quite in rosy health—he is, indeed—and jokes Peggy Owen for her want of power to flash.

1798.  O’Keefe, Fontainbleau, III. i. Any thing better than bilking me or spunging upon my customers, and flashing it away in their old clothes.

1798.  Geraldina, I. 46. I nod to him … whilst he is flashing the gentleman amongst the girls.

1877.  W. H. Thomson, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 220. He flashed it about a good deal for a long time, going from one place to another. Sometimes he was a lord, at others an earl.

  b.  slang. To make a great display of, exhibit ostentatiously, show off, ‘sport.’

1785.  Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tong., Flask … to shew ostentatiously; to flash one’s ivory, to laugh and shew one’s teeth.

1819.  T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. (ed. 3), 2.

1832.  Examiner, 845/1. It was known that the deceased had money, in consequence of flashing his purse about.

1864.  Reader, 23 Jan., 96. Ladies go to church to exhibit their bonnets, and young gentlemen to flash their diamond rings.

  14.  In certain technical uses.

  a.  Glass-making. intr. Of a blown globe of glass: To spread out or expand into a sheet. Also trans. (a) To cause (a globe of glass) to expand into a sheet; (b) To cover (colorless glass) with a film of colored glass; to melt (the film) on or over a sheet of colorless glass.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 581, s.v. Glass-making Few tools are needed for blowing and flashing crown-glass.

1846.  W. Johnston, Bechmann’s Invent. (ed. 4), I. 135. The rose-coloured scent-bottles, &c., now commonly made, are composed of plain glass flashed or coated with a very thin layer of the glass in question. Ibid., 133. Instead of blowing plates of solid red, the old glass-makers used to flash a thin layer of red over a substratum of plain glass.

1876.  Barff, Glass & Silicates, 82. The glass becomes softened by the heat, and the workman gives his pointel a rotary motion, somewhat similar to that which a housemaid gives to a mop when she trundles it; and as the glass softens, the opening gets larger and larger, until at last the softened mass instantaneously flashes out into a circular sheet, an operation which produces a very startling effect upon the eyes of anyone beholding it for the first time.

1883.  Proctor, in 19th Cent., Nov., 882. Not merely flashed with a violet tint, but the glass itself so tinted.

  b.  Electric lighting. To make (a carbon filament) uniform in thickness, by plunging it when heated into a heavy hydro-carbon gas.

1888.  Pall Mall G., 19 July, 2/2. We have carried the manufacture of our filaments to such perfection that although we do not flash them there are absolutely no inequalities discoverable.

  Hence Flashed ppl. a.

1876.  Barff, Glass & Silicates, 96. Glass made in this way is called ‘coated’ and sometimes ‘flashed’ glass, and is extremely useful for ornamental purposes, for by the action upon the coloured surface of hydrofluoric acid, the ruby coating can be eaten away, and the white glass beneath left entire.

1890.  Urquhart, Electric Light, ix. (ed. 3), 284. ‘Flashed’ Filaments.