1819. Vaux, Flash Dict., p. 173. s.v. A person who affects any
peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in a particular manner,
taking snuff, etc., merely to be taken notice of is said to do it
out of flash.
1828. The English Spy. vol. I., p. 189. The man upon that
half-starved nag Is an Ex S——ff, a strange wag, Half-flash and half
a clown.
1851. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, I., p. 36. They all of them
(coster lads) delight in dressing flash as they call it.... They
try to dress like the men, with large pockets in their cord
jackets, and plenty of them. Their trousers, too, must fit tight at
the knee, and their boots they like as good as possible. A good
‘kingsman,’ a plush skull-cap, and a seam down the trousers are the
great points of ambition with the coster boys.
[Hence, in combination, Flash-case, crib, drum, house, ken, or
panny (see Flash-ken); flash-cove (q.v.); flash-dispensary
(American = a boarding house), especially a swell brothel;
flash-gentry (= the swell mob or higher class of thieves);
flash-girl, -moll, -mollisher, -piece or -woman (= a showy
prostitute); flash-jig (costers’ = a favourite dance); flash-kiddy
(= a dandy); flash-lingo, or song (= ‘patter,’ or a song
interlarded with cant words and phrases); flash-man (q.v.);
flash-note (= a spurious bank-note); flash-rider (American, see
broncho-buster); flash toggery (= smart clothes); flash vessel (= a
gaudy looking, but undisciplined ship)].
1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, [1890,] p. 58. The rusticity of Jerry
was fast wearing off ... and he bid fair, etc. ... to chaff with
the flash mollishers.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 273 Soon then I mounted in Swell St.
High, And sported my flashiest toggery.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 14. The other
dances are jigs—flash jigs—hornpipes in fetters—a dance rendered
popular by the success of the noted Jack Sheppard.
Verb (common).—1. To show; to expose.
[Among combinations may be mentioned, to flash one’s ivories = to
show one’s teeth, to grin (Grose); to flash the hash = to vomit
(Grose); to flash the dickey = to show the shirt front; to flash
the dibs = to show or spend one’s money; to flash a fawney = to
wear a ring; to flash one’s gab = to talk, to swagger, to brag; to
flash the bubs = to expose the paps; to flash the muzzle (q.v.); to
flash one’s ticker = to air one’s watch; to flash the drag = to
wear women’s clothes for immoral purposes; to flash the white grin
= see grin; to flash it (q.v.), or to flash one’s meat (cf.,
meat-flasher); to flash a bit (q.v.); to flash the flag = to sport
an apron; to flash the wedge = to ‘fence’ the swag, etc.]
1812. Vaux, Flash Dict. Don’t flash your sticks, don’t expose your
pistols.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 2. His lordship, as usual,
that very great dab At the flowers of rhet’ric, is flashing his
gab.
1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc. He flashed the blunt, made a
show of money to dazzle the spectators.
1825. E. Kent, Modern Flash Dict. Flashing his ivory, shew his
teeth.
1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, (ed. 1864), p. 176.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Dead Drummer.’ When
trav’lling, don’t flash your notes or your cash Before other
people—it’s foolish and rash.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Good-Night. Likewise you molls that
flash your bubs, For swells to spot and stand you sam.
1887. W. E. Henley, Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, or flash the
drag.
To flash a bit, verbal phr. (venery).—To show up; to permit
examination; ‘to spread’ (q.v.); to behave indecently. Said of women
only.
To flash it, or to flash one’s meat.—To expose the person. [Hence
meat-flasher] (q.v.). Said usually of men.
To flash the muzzle (old).—To produce a pistol.
c. 1823. Ballad (quoted in Don Juan xi.). On the high toby spice
flash the muzzle In spite of each gallows old scout.
To flash it about, or to cut a flash or dash, verbal phr. (common).—To
make a display; to live conspicuously and extravagantly.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 220. He flashed it
about a good deal for a long time, going from one place to another.
Sometimes he was a lord, at others an earl.
To go flashing it, verb. phr. (venery).—To have sexual intercourse. For
synonyms, see Greens and Ride.
Flash-Case (or -Crib, -House, -Drum, -Ken, -Panny, etc.).—1. A house
frequented by thieves, as a tavern, lodging-house, fence (q.v.).
1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Flash-ken, c., a house
where thieves use, and are connived at.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1821. D. Haggart, Life, ‘Glossary,’ p. 172. Flash-kain, a house for
receiving stolen goods. [Haggart’s spelling, being that of the
respectable Edinburgh lawyer who took down his ‘confessions’ is
generally misleading and inaccurate.]
1828. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very great
vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at the flash-houses.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 50 (ed. 1854). There is one Peggy
Lobkins who keeps a public house, a sort of flash-ken called ‘The
Mug’ in Thames Court.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (ed. 1840), p. 271. I’ve been to all
the flash-cases in town, and can hear nothing of him or his
wives.... Ibid, p. 135. ‘The Black Lion!’ echoed Terence, ‘I know
the house well; by the same token that it’s a flash-crib.’