Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagersflashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desksflashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
The special agentsflashed their badges as they entered the building.
Sheflashed me a smile from the car window.
2020 September 14, Charlie Campbell, “'Thailand’s Inconvenient Truth.' Why This Billionaire Is Risking It All to Back Reform of the Monarchy”, inTime[1], archived fromthe original on14 September 2020:
Today, people are taking to the street once again. Clad in face masks, andflashing the three-fingeredHunger Games salute to the sound of Thai rap, thousands of protesters have thronged the capital over recent months, demanding political reform of a military-backed government seen as bungling and corrupt.
1845,Thomas [Noon] Talfourd,Report of the Proceedings Connected with the Grant Soirée of the Manchester Athenæum, Held on Thursday, October 23rd, 1845. From the Manchester Guardian of Saturday, October 25th, 1845. Printed for the Directors, Manchester: Cave and Sever, Printers, 18, St. Ann's Street,→OCLC,page16:
For although party's worn-out moulds have been shivered, and names which haveflashed and thundered as the watchwords of unnumbered struggles for power are now fast waning into history, it is too much to hope, perhaps to desire, until the education of mankind shall more nearly approach its completion, that strong differences of opinion and feeling should cease to agitate the scenes on which freemen are called to discharge political duties.
But while he jested thus, / A thoughtflashed through me, which I clothed in act. / Remembering how we three presented Maid, / Or Nymph, or Goddess, at high tide of feast, / In masque or pageant at my father's court.
The Isabella [Isabella, or the Pot of Basil], then, is a perfect treasure-house of graceful and felicitous words and images: almost in every stanza there occurs one of those vivid and picturesque turns of expression, by which the object is made toflash upon the eye of the mind, and which thrill the reader with a sudden delight.
Deep folly! yet that this could be— That I could wing my will with might To leap the grades of life and light, Andflash at once, my friend, to thee:[…]
2011 January 11, Jonathan Stevenson, “West Ham 2 – 1 Birmingham”, inBBC Sport[2], archived fromthe original on18 March 2016:
But they survived some real pressure asDavid Murphyflashed a header inches wide ofRob Green's right-hand post[…].
(transitive) Totelephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.
Susanflashed Jessica, and then Jessica called her back, because Susan didn't have enough credit on her phone to make the call.
Oft have I ſeaſoned ſavory periods / With ſugar'd words, to delude Guſtus' taſte, / And oft embelliſh'd my entreative phraſe, / Limning andflaſhing it with various dyes, / To draw proud Viſus to me by the eyes:[…]
1590,Edmund Spenser,The Faerie Qveene. Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed for W[illiam] Ponsonbie,OCLC18024649, book II, canto VI, stanza XLII; republished asThe Faerie Queene. By Edmund Spenser. With an Exact Collation of the Two Original Editions, Published by Himself at London in Quarto; the Former Containing the First Three Books Printed in 1590, and the Latter the Six Books in 1596. To which are Now Added, a New Life of the Author, and also a Glossary. Adorn'd with Thirty-two Copper-Plates, from the Original Drawings of the late W. Kent, Esq.; Architect and Principal Painter to His Majesty, volume I, London: Printed for J. Brindley, inNew Bond-Street, and S. Wright, Clerk of His Majesty's Works, atHampton-Court, 1751,OCLC642577152,page 316:
The varlet ſaw, when to the flood he came, / How without ſtop or ſtay he fiercely lept, / And deep himſelfe beducked in the ſame, / That in the lake his loftie creſt was ſteept, / Ne of his ſafetie ſeemed care he kept, / But with his raging armes he rudelyflaſhd / The waves about, and all his armour ſwept, / That all the bloud and filth away was waſht, / Yet ſtill hebet the water, and the billows daſht.
1988 February 14, Marea Murray, “Friction Between The Factions”, inGay Community News, volume15, number30, page11:
Kevin, one of the first buddies in Boston lies calmly, very thin in the casket. I think of his face angrily making a point at a meeting or happily hosting his Christmas party. Iflash to my father's wake and the "well-meaning" people who whispered about how awful he looked as I stood by watching, wanting to scream "What did you expect?"
1958 November, “Storm Damage in the Home Counties”, inRailway Magazine, page746:
Between 8 and 9 p.m., the recorder at a meteorological station at Harrow, Middlesex, picked up 1,470 lightningflashes within a radius of 10 to 15 miles, and observers at the station described the storm as "probably one of the most spectacular of the century."
1680,Francis Bacon, “Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates”, inThe Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, Viscount St Alban. With a Table of the Colours of Good & Evil. Whereunto is Added The Wisdom of the Antients. Enlarged by the Honourable Author Himself; and Now More Exactly Published, London: Printed byM[ary] Clark, forSamuel Mearne, inLittle Britain,John Martyn, inSt. Pauls Church-yard, andHenry Herringman, in the New Exchange,→OCLC,pages111–112:
[F]orEmpire andGreatneſs it importeth moſt, that a Nation do profeſs Arms as their principal Honour, Study and Occupation:[…] The Fabrick of theState of Sparta was wholly (though not wiſely) framed and compoſed to that Scope and End. ThePerſians andMacedonians had it for aflaſh. TheGalls,Germans,Goths,Saxons,Normans, and others had it for a time.
[B]reath his faults ſo quaintly, / That they may ſeeme the taints of liberty; / Theflaſh and out-breake of a fiery minde, / Aſauagenes in vnreclaim'dbloud of generall aſſault.
1817,William Wirt (Attorney General), “section I”, inSketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, Philadelphia, Pa.: Published by James Webster, No. 10, S. Eighth Street. William Brown, printer, Prune-street,→OCLC,page 6:
I cannot learn that he [Patrick Henry] gave, in his youth, any evidence of that precocity which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius. His companions recollect no instance of premature wit, no striking sentiment, noflash of fancy, no remarkable beauty or strength of expression; and no indication, however slight, either of that impassioned love of liberty, or of that adventurous daring and intrepidity, which marked, so strongly, his future character.
Fabio Capello insisted[Wayne] Rooney was in the right frame of mind to play in stormyPodgorica despite his father's arrest on Thursday in a probe into alleged betting irregularities, but hisflash of temper – when he kicked out atMiodrag Dzudovic – suggested otherwise.
1970 March 29,Nik Cohn, “England's New Teen Style Is Violence”, inThe New York Times[4],→ISSN:
Above all, they hateflash. Just as the English working class has always been, they are fiercely puritanical and abhor all forms of display.
1989 December 24, Elizabeth Pincus, “Screwball Glitz And Revolt Against Misogyny”, inGay Community News, volume17, number24, page16:
Another pleasant surprise ofShe-Devil is director Susan Seidelman's infusion of political moxie into the movie, a departure from her tendency to dish out lots offlash with little substance.
1990, Wayne Jancik,The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders,→ISBN, page390:
The ATF sound was lacking in extended solos,flash, and pomposity, but CBS liked the group's respect for traditional Anglo-rock, their Beatles-like energy, and the splashes of Yes, Genesis, and 10cc that colored their music.
At three-thirty that afternoon Max, Tom, and Sharon placed tabs under their tongues and sat together in the living room to wait for theflash.
1973, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency,Proper and Improper Use of Drugs by Athletes: Hearings, page645:
A few seconds following the injection, the user experiences a sudden, intense generalized sensation which has both physiological and psychological characteristics.[…] pure, commercially produced products do not give a goodflash[…]
1976, Robert H. Coombs, Lincoln J. Fry, Patricia G. Lewis,Socialization in Drug Abuse, page123:
Theflash — the odd combination of a cocoon-comfort and an inexplicable physical ascendency to a "high" — provides the major incentive for the new experimenter to move to the next phase of his career.
Synonym offlashback(“recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug”).
2021, Glenn Petersen,War and the Arc of Human Experience, page129:
I'd heard about LSD and wanted to try it early on, but I'd also heard of delayed reactions, called acidflashes, brought on by unexpected stimuli; they could prove fatally disorienting.
1931, George Seldes,Can These Things Be!, volume25, page274:
The United Press got theflash "Germans declare martial law in Ruhr"[…]
Abrief exposure or making visible (of a smile, badge, etc).
2015 October 27, Tim O'Rourke,Flashes, Scholastic Inc.,→ISBN:
I didn't need them anymore. The police badge worked like a dream with both Alice and Kerry. One quickflash of the badge, and they were in the car and out of the rain. No questions asked.
2017 June 29, Ally Shields,Embers of Fire, Etopia Press,→ISBN:
Gabriel grabbed her wrist and spun her around, stepping forward right in her face, showing a briefflash of fangs this time. “Not good enough. I can haul you over my shoulder if that's the way it has to be.” “I'd almost like to see you[…]
2018 October 3, Blaine Lee Pardoe,BattleTech Legends: Measure of a Hero, Catalyst Game Labs:
She ended the question with aflash of a smile that took more energy than she'd ever thought a mere smile could.
The (intentional or unintentional) exposure of anintimate body part orundergarment in public.
pantyflash
2005 September 1, Lisa Cach,Have Glass Slippers, Will Travel, Simon and Schuster,→ISBN, page256:
[…] the answer came to her. Camera flashes. That strobing light had been the flash of a camera. Icy panic poured through her body. She had a vision of Janet Jackson's boobflash at the Super Bowl;[…]
2021 April 21, Tina Gray,Fantasy Lover, Pink Flamingo Media,→ISBN:
“Would you like a boobflash?” Hundred token tips began to flow in. “Thanks guys, and she read off the user names. That deserves more than just a flash.” She pulled up the hem of her top and turned left and right giving them a great show[…]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
For the sense ‘a short period of time’, the1858Notes and Queries of Martim de Albuquerque was consulted. From page 437 of the sixth volume of the second series, published in London by Bell & Dally, 186 Fleet Street, in 1858 :
FromMiddle Englishflashe,flaske, also found asflosche andflushe (whence modern Englishflosh andflush), used in Middle and modern English for bodies of water with varying emphasis on them being "pools" or "marshes".[1] It is not entirely clear whether these constitute a single term with varied spellings, or have distinct etymologies. The formflash,flashe is often suggested to be fromOld Frenchflache,Frenchflaque, which is ofGermanic origin, akin toMiddle Dutchvlacke(“an estuary, flats with stagnant pools”). Seeflush for more on that form.
their hearts lie lumpish as a Log that lies in aflash of water seven years together
1895,The Naturalist,, page 232:
The[…] woods, commons, ponds,'flashes,' bogs, 'damp spots,' and ditches are, when the number and rarity of some of the species are taken into account, the richest botanical ground in Lincolnshire;
1967, R. E. Bevan,Notes on the Science and Practice of the Controlled Tipping ..., page40:
It includes deep holes, wet and dry, and the hill-and-dale formations left by the mechanical excavation of sand, gravel, clay, ironstone and other surface-worked minerals; the heaps of shale, waste products and fuel ash resulting from deep mining, manufacturing and the generation of electric power; theflashes, swamps and hollows caused by mining subsidence; the hill-side scars made by chalk, limestone and hardrock quarrying; and the ruins of abandoned industrial buildings.[2]
1972,The Naturalist, numbers920-935, page127:
In breeding season the important [...] sites are distributed along the Dearne and Don on theflashes, marshes, ponds and oxbows, in the carrs around Doncaster, and the flooded gravel pits at Blaxton, Finningley, Sutton and Lound (see fig. 3).
1986,A Directory of Neotropical Wetlands, page544:
A saline coastal lagoon, up to 3m deep, behind a sand bar, with brackish marshes (flashes) and mangrove swamps. The lagoon has now been permanently opened to the sea.
2016, Tim Dee,Four Fields, page47:
Spring waders passed through on migration, joining the fen to otherflashes, marshes, rivers, seas and oceans, flying from Africa to Siberia and landing en route only where their feet might be covered with water.
^For example, in the 14th centuryNorthern Verse Psalter (Surtees Psalter), Vsp D.7, theYorkshire Writers edition by C. Horstmann (vol. 2, 1896),flaske (in the Hrl 1770 edition,flosshe) glossesLatinlacum(“lake”).
^For interpretation of the meaning of this cite, cf. theEnglish Dialect Dictionary's entry "flash", "A pool formed by the subsidence of salt-mines, Chambers'Jrn. (Dec. 1888); From settlements of the land caused by salt-works ‘in some places large lakes, called flashes, are formed, some of them more than 200 acres in area and gradually extending,’Dublin Review (Apr. 1889) 431, inLin. N. & Q. (Oct. 1891) 249
According toRoyal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
