Meaning

23 senses
  1. (transitive)To cause to shine briefly or intermittently.

    He flashed the light at the water, trying to see what made the noise.

    вспы́хиватьvspýxivatʹ, вспы́хнутьvspýxnutʹ

    appear briefly

  2. (intransitive)To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.

    The light flashed on and off.

    blinken

    gleam or glow intermittently

  3. (intransitive)To be visible briefly.

    The scenery flashed by quickly.

    expose or show briefly

  4. (transitive)To make visible briefly.

    A number will be flashed on the screen.

    The special agents flashed their badges as they entered the building.

  5. (ambitransitive, informal)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.

  6. (figuratively)To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.

  7. To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.

    He flashed a wad of hundred-dollar bills.

  8. 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.

  9. 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

    run or move very quickly or hastily

  10. To move, or cause to move, suddenly.

    Flash forward to the present day.

  11. (dated, transitive)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.

    прозвони́тьprozvonítʹ

  12. (intransitive)To evaporate suddenly. (See flash evaporation.)

Examples

243 sentences
  1. I saw a flash of lightning.

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  2. I saw a flash of lightning far in the distance.

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  3. Did you see that flash of lightning?

    ruВы видели, как блеснула молния?

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  4. Here's a news flash.

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  5. Did you flash your lights?

    deHast du die Lichthupe betätigt?

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Translations

7 languages
Русский
By meaning 2
to cause to shine:
to telephone someone, only allowing the phone to ring once:
Deutsch
By meaning 2
to blink:
computing: to write to the memory of an updatable component:

Origin

In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle

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”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

flashes, flashing, flashed, flashed
Base formflash · to flash
3rd person singularflashes
Present participleflashing
Past simpleflashed
Past participleflashed

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theyflash
he, she, itflashes

Past simpleLesson

all personsflashed

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave flashed
he, she, ithas flashed

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill flash

Phrasal verbs

5 phrasal verbs

Synonyms

15 synonyms
to briefly illuminate:glintC2
telephoning:beep
Close in meaning

Word family

22 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
flash — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto