1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, (ed. 1854), p. 141. The thunders of eloquence being hushed, flashes of lightning, or, as the vulgar say, ‘glasses of gin’ gleamed about. 1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 168. The stimulant of a flash of lightning ... for so a dram of neat spirit was then called. 1862. E. MacDermott, Popular Guide to International Exhibition, 1862, p. 185. In the vestibule of each refreshment room there is an American bar, where visitors may indulge in ... gum-ticklers, eye-openers, flashes of lightning ... and a variety of similar beverages. 2. (nautical). The gold braid on an officer’s cap. Flash in the Pan, subs. phr. (venery).—Connection without emission. Cf. Dry-Bob (q.v.). Also verbally. 1719. Durfey, Pills, v., 340. Still hawking, still baulking, You flash in the pan. Flashy, adj., and Flashily, or Flashly, adv. (old: now colloquial). Empty; showy; tawdry; insipid. 1637. Milton, Lycidas, 123. Their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw. 1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act I., sc. iv. It is oftentimes too late with some of you young, termagant, flashy sinners. 1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 12. A flashy town beau. 1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary, (5th ed.) Flashy (a), vain, bragging, boasting, foolish, empty; also anything waterish and unsavoury. 1755. The World, No. 149. Whose melodious voices give every syllable (not of a lean and flashy, but of a fat and plump song) its just emphasis. 1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 13, (ed. 1854). Vy it be ... the gemman vot payed you so flashly. 1857. Song in Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, p. 42. Your fogle you must flashly tie. 1863. Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Nile, p. 154. Flashily dressed in coloured cloths and a turban, he sat down in one of our chairs. 1864. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. v. But he evinced no bad taste in the selection of a costume. He chose no gaudy colours, or flashily cut vestments. 1873. Cassell’s Magazine, Jan., p. 246, col. 2. They are rather prone to dress flashily, and wear, when in full fig, no end of jewellery. 1874. Mortimer Collins, Frances, ch. xvii. That wild set of people Captain Heath picked up with—members of Parliament and flashy young women—all driving four horses, I don’t know where. 1882. Century Magazine, xxvi., 295. As stones, they were cheap and flashy. Flash-Tail, subs. (common).—A prostitute.—See Tail. 1868. Temple Bar, xxiv., p. 538–9. Picking-up Moll ... a flashtail? a prostitute who goes about the streets at nights trying to pick up toffs. Flasher, subs. (old).—A high-flyer; a fop; a pretender to wit. For synonyms, see Dandy. Also (quot. 2), a Bonnet (q.v.).