[f. FLASH a.2 and 3 + -NESS.] The quality or state of being flash.
† 1. a. Of the stomach: Weakness. b. Of reasoning: Insipid, flavorless character; superficiality.
1562. Turner, Baths, 8 b. They [these bathes] are good for the lousnes & flashnes of yt stomack, for the weknes of yt same, & for an euill appetite, & en euil digestion, and the slipperines of yt stomack that it can not well holde any meat.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, V. iv. 184. The acutenesse in the other [plausible persuasions] will allay their flashnesse and render them pleasant.
2. a. Gaudiness. b. Affectation of ‘flash’ ways. See FLASH a.3 1.
1885. Runciman, Skippers and Shellbacks, 260. The glare, the abandonment, the cursing of the women who had drunk too much, and all the tawdry flashness of the place, were repellent to him.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery under Arms, xvi. (1890), 109. ‘It’s come just as I said, and knowed it would, through Starlight’s cussed flashness and carryin’s on in fine company.’
