flash

flash vb Flash, gleam, glance, glint, sparkle, glitter, glisten, scintillate, coruscate, twinkle mean to shoot forth light (as in rays or sparks).

Flash implies a sudden and transient outburst of light or a sudden display of something that brilliantly reflects light or seems lighted up

{

the headlights . . . flashed into barnyards where fowls slept— Anderson

}

{

flashed all their sabers bare— Tennyson

}

{

his flashing eyes, his floating hair— Coleridge

}

Gleam implies a ray which shines through an intervening medium or against a background of relative darkness

{

I see the lights of the village gleam through the rain and mist— Longfellow

}

{

a light gleamed through the chinks in the wall— Dickens

}

{

his dislike of me gleamed in his blue eyes and in his supercilious cold smile— Rose Macaulay

}

Glance implies darting or obliquely reflected light; glint implies quickly glancing or gleaming light

{

besides the glancing tears . . . some diamonds . . . glanced on the bride's hand— Dickens

}

{

an insane light glanced in her heavy black eyes— Stowe

}

{

specks of sail that glinted in the sunlight far at sea— Dickens

}

{

when the first sunshine through their dewdrops glints— J. R. Lowell

}

{

the large brass scales near the flour bins glinted— Bennett

}

Sparkle suggests quick, bright, brief, and innumerable small flashes of light; glitter connotes greater brilliancy or showiness than sparkle, sometimes with the implication of something sinister

{

the fireflies . . . sparkled most vividly in the darkest places— Irving

}

{

the sparkling waves— Wordsworth

}

{

everything sparkled like a garden after a shower— Cather

}

{

eyes sparkling with amusement

}

{

eyes glittering with greed

}

{

glittering rings

}

{

the sunshine sifted down . . . and the yellow flower . . . caught it, and glittered like a topaz— Deland

}

Glisten implies a more or less subdued sparkle, glitter, or gleaming that suggests the lustrous shining quality of a moist surface

{

dew glistening in the soft morning light

}

{

snowy mountains glistening through a summer atmosphere— Irving

}

{

eyes glistening with heavenly tears— Carlyle

}

Scintillate implies the emission of sparks in a steady stream or a sparkling suggestive of such an emission; coruscate the emission of a brilliant flash or succession of flashes; both words have extended as well as literal use

{

a night so clear that the stars seem to scintillate

}

{

an ornate style that coruscated with verbal epigrams— Huxley

}

{

coruscating wit

}

Twinkle suggests a soft and intermittent sparkling, often wavering and lustrous

{

twinkle, twinkle, little star . . . like a diamond in the sky— Jane & Ann Taylor

}

{

sunbeams . . . twinkled on the glass and silver of the sideboard— Cather

}

{

he looked at her and his eyes twinkled— Anderson

}

Analogous words: shoot, dart (see FLY): *rise, surge, tower, rocket: *blaze, flame, flare, glare, glow

flash n second, *instant, moment, minute, jiffy, twinkling, split second