flash.
To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
Meaning & usage
To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.
He flashed the light at the water, trying to see what made the noise.
To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
The light flashed on and off.
To be visible briefly.
The scenery flashed by quickly.
To make visible briefly.
A number will be flashed on the screen.
The special agents flashed their badges as they entered the building.
To expose one's intimate body part or undergarment, often momentarily and unintentionally. (Contrast streak.)
She flashed a vocalist at a rock concert.
Her skirt was so short that she flashed her underpants as she was getting out of her car.
To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
He flashed a wad of hundred-dollar bills.
To flaunt; to display in a showy manner. To show a gang sign or similar hand gesture.
I knew he was serious when he flashed a Bloods sign.
To communicate quickly.
The news services flashed the news about the end of the war to all corners of the globe.
to flash a message along the telephone wires; to flash conviction on the mind
To move, or cause to move, suddenly.
Flash forward to the present day.
To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.
Susan flashed Jessica, and then Jessica called her back, because Susan didn't have enough credit on her phone to make the call.
To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)
To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
To write to the memory of (an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge).
In order to flash a custom ROM to a phone, the boot loader must be unlocked first.
To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
To expand (blown glass) into a disc.
To send by some startling or sudden means.
To burst out into violence.
To perform a flash.
To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
To trick up in a showy manner.
To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
To flash back.
Where this word comes from
In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).
A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.
A very short amount of time.
A flashlight; an electric torch.
A sudden and brilliant burst, as of genius or wit.
Pizzazz, razzle-dazzle.
Material left around the edge of a moulded part at the parting line of the mould.
The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.
A pattern where each prop is thrown and caught only once.
A language, created by a minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class.
Clipping of camera flash (“a device used to produce a flash of artificial light to help illuminate a scene”).
A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
A form of military insignia.
I just got my first commando flash.
Clipping of flash memory.
The hybrid drive has 500 gigabytes of hard disk space for bulk storage and 2 gigabytes of high-speed flash for caching frequently-accessed files.
Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genera Artipe, Deudorix and Rapala.
A tattoo flash (example design on paper to give an idea of a possible tattoo).
The sudden sensation of being "high" after taking a recreational drug.
Synonym of flashback (“recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug”).
A newsflash.
A brief exposure or making visible (of a smile, badge, etc).
The (intentional or unintentional) exposure of an intimate body part or undergarment in public.
Ellipsis of hook flash.
Where this word comes from
In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).
Expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.
Having plenty of ready money.
Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
Relating to thieves and vagabonds.
the flash language: thieves' cant or slang
flash notes: counterfeit banknotes
Where this word comes from
In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative origin; in other senses probably of North Germanic origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).
A pool of water, in some areas especially one that is marshy, and/or one formed by subsidence of the ground due to mining. (Compare flush (“marsh; pool”).)
A reservoir and sluiceway beside a navigable stream, just above a shoal, so that the stream may pour in water as boats pass, and thus bear them over the shoal.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English flashe, flaske, also found as flosche and flushe (whence modern English flosh and flush), used in Middle and modern English for bodies of water with varying emphasis on them being "pools" or "marshes". It is not entirely clear whether these constitute a single term with varied spellings, or have distinct etymologies. The form flash, flashe is often suggested to be from Old French flache, French flaque, which is of Germanic origin, akin to Middle Dutch vlacke (“an estuary, flats with stagnant pools”). See flush for more on that form.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.