flashy, a.
(ˈflæʃɪ)
[f. flash n.2 and v. + -y1. Association with flash a.2 and a.3 has probably affected some of the senses.]
† 1. Throwing up water, splashing. Obs.
| 1583 Stanyhurst Aeneis ii. (Arb.) 59 Not so great a ruffling the riuer strong flasshye reteyneth. 1611 Cotgr., Gascheux, flashie, plashie, washie, dashing, bespatling. |
2. † a. Over-moist, watery, frothy. † b. Insipid, tasteless, vapid.
| 1625 Bacon Ess., Studies (Arb.) 11 Distilled Bookes, are like common distilled Waters, Flashy things. 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. 198 The other [turnips] being soft, flashy, and insipid. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 41 The taste of them is more sweet and flashy than Groats made of common Oats. 1702 W. J. Bruyn's Voy. Levant xxi. 94 They [artichokes] eat not so flashy as when they are Boyled after our Way. 1743 Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 329 It is not the first flashy, frothy Yeast. 1771 Ann. Reg. 107/1 The young grass which springs in consequence of a flood, is of so flashy a nature that it occasions this common complaint. 1847 Halliwell, Flashy..loose, unstable, as unsound grass; insipid. |
† c. fig. Of persons and immaterial things: Trifling, destitute of solidity or purpose; void of meaning, trashy. Obs.
| 1597–8 Bp. Hall Sat. Postscr., It can yeeld nothing but a flashy and loose conceyt to the judgement. 1637 Milton Lycidas 122 Their lean and flashie songs. 1647 Trapp Comm. Epistles 146 Their mirth is frothy and flashy, such as smooths the brow, but fils not the brest. 1679 Shadwell True Widow 31 They are a company of flashy, frothy Fellows. 1745 J. Mason Self-Knowl. iii. vi. (1853) 202 To read Froth and Trifles all our Life, is the way always to retain a flashy and juvenile Turn. |
3. Giving off flashes, shining by flashes; glittering, sparkling, brilliant. lit. and fig. Also, lasting only for a flash, transitory, momentary.
| 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xxiii. xii. 239 Flashie lightenings. 1630 Prynne God No Impostor 13 Reprobates haue oft times many sodaine, transitory, and flashy ioyes. 1682 New News from Bedlam 28 My Gallick Tongue, and my rare flashy Wit, Shall make the Whigs and all the Tories split Themselves with laughing. a 1711 Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 119, I soon felt my flashy Goodness fade. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1742) III. 343 So flashy and transient a Glare. 1780 F. Burney Diary Apr., She was very flashy, and talked away all the evening. 1784 C. Burney Let. 16 Jan. in F. Burney Early Diary (1889) II. 317, I had a good flashey evening. 1819 H. Busk Vestriad iv. 35 One ruby glitter'd like the flashy Mars. 1826 Scott Jrnl. 29 Mar., A fine, flashy, disagreeable day; snow-clouds sweeping past among sunshine. 1840 Macaulay Life & Lett. (1883) II. 81, I will try to make as interesting an article, though I fear not so flashy, as that on Clive. 1884 Manch. Exam. 11 Sept. 5/1 He looks beyond the momentary triumphs of a flashy and adventurous policy. |
b. In depreciative sense, chiefly of speech, a speaker, or writer: Superficially bright; brilliant, but shallow; cheaply attractive.
| a 1690 G. Fox Jrnl. Life, etc. I. 108 An high Notionist, and a flashy Man. 1739 Cibber Apol. v. 107 The false, flashy Pretender to Wit. 1823 De Quincey Lett. Educ. v. (1860) 97 The secondhand report of a flashy rhetorician. 1835 Browning Paracelsus 129 Patient merit Obscured awhile by flashy tricks. 1883 Century Mag. XXVI. 295/1 As stories, these were cheap and flashy. |
† 4. Excited, impulsive, eager. Obs.
| 1632 Vicars Virgil xi. 366 The ladie..With light-heel'd flashy haste the horse o'retook. 1767 Bush Hibernia Cur. (1769) 22 By that time he has discharged his five or six bottles, he will get a little flashy, perhaps. 1781 P. Beckford Hunting xix. 244, I have seen hounds so flashy, that they would break away from the huntsman as soon as they saw a cover. |
5. Showy, fine-looking; gaudy, glaring.
| 1801 Gabrielli Myst. Husb. III. 255 They then got into their carriage, a mighty flashy one, to my mind. 1805 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. 14 Jan., The equipment which I propose..although not so flashy, would be more useful. 1829 Cunningham Brit. Paint. I. 31 People naturally fond of flashy colours. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro' M. 315 The splendour of a very flashy silk waistcoat. |
6. Of persons: Given to show, fond of cutting a dash, ‘swellish’; also, vain and conceited.
| 1687 Congreve Old Bach. i. iv, Young termagant flashy sinners. a 1704 T. Brown Pleas. Epist. Wks. 1730 I. 109 Those flashy fellows, your Covent Garden poets. 1787 G. Colman Inkle & Yarico ii. i, A young flashy Englishman will sometimes carry a whole fortune on his back. 1850 Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1883) 375 Veteran topers, flashy young men, visitors from the country. |
7. Comb., as flashy-looking adj.
| 1852 Earp Gold Col. Australia 72 That flashy-looking man in a tandem was transported for bank robbery. 1880 Marg. Lonsdale Sister Dora viii. 209 A flashy-looking man, with conspicuous rings and watch-chain. |