Flash
English Meaning
To burst or break forth with a sudden and transient flood of flame and light; as, the lighting flashes vividly; the powder flashed.
- To burst forth into or as if into flame.
- To give off light or be lighted in sudden or intermittent bursts.
- To appear or occur suddenly: The image flashed onto the screen.
- To move or proceed rapidly: The cars flashed by.
- To hang up a phone line momentarily, as when using call waiting.
- Slang To think of or remember something suddenly: flashed on that time we got caught in the storm.
- Slang To expose oneself in an indecent manner.
- To cause (light) to appear suddenly or in intermittent bursts.
- To cause to burst into flame.
- To reflect (light).
- To cause to reflect light from (a surface).
- To make known or signal by flashing lights.
- To communicate or display at great speed: flashed the news to the world capitals.
- To exhibit briefly.
- To hang up (a phone line) momentarily, as when using call waiting.
- To display ostentatiously; flaunt.
- To fill suddenly with water.
- To cover with a thin protective layer.
- A sudden, brief, intense display of light.
- A sudden perception: a flash of insight.
- A split second; an instant: I'll be on my way in a flash.
- A brief news dispatch or transmission.
- Slang Gaudy or ostentatious display: "The antique flash and trash of an older southern California have given way to a sleeker age of cultural hip” ( Newsweek).
- A flashlight.
- Instantaneous illumination for photography: photograph by flash.
- A device, such as a flashbulb, flashgun, or flash lamp, used to produce such illumination.
- Slang The pleasurable sensation that accompanies the use of a drug; a rush.
- Obsolete The language or cant of thieves, tramps, or underworld figures.
- Happening suddenly or very quickly: flash freezing.
- Slang Ostentatious; showy: a flash car.
- Of or relating to figures of quarterly economic growth released by the government and subject to later revision.
- Of or relating to photography using instantaneous illumination.
- Of or relating to thieves, swindlers, and underworld figures.
- flash in the pan One that promises great success but fails.