flash cut

noun

A change made to a complex system with immediate effect, one made without a phase-in period.

Meanings

nounflash cut (plural flash cuts)

plural flash cuts

  1. communicationsA change made to a complex system with immediate effect, one made without a phase-in period.
  2. ball gamesA quick move from the weak side toward the ball.

    When the defenders switch, the screener is open (option b) on the inside flash cut (slip) to the ball.

    2008, Jerry Krause, Don Meyer, Jerry Meyer, Basketball Skills and Drills, →ISBN, page 32
    2 more examples

    Be in a strong, balanced stance and ready to withstand any contact that may take place as you stop the flash cut.

    1994, Hal Wissel, Basketball: Steps to Success, →ISBN, page 201

    If the opponent's post players have an advantage in size and strength, the flash cut will not be as effective because the defender can step in front of the cut and use and arm bar to prevent it from being executed.

    2007, Kathy McGee, Coaching Basketball Technical and Tactical Skills, →ISBN, page 144
  3. broadcastingAn fast cut, often as short as one frame, used to create a subliminal effect on the viewer.

    Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), for example, begins with two brothers driving through the small town of Paris, Australia, only to suddenly encounter — via flash cut — a blinding white light in the road.

    2004, David Scott Diffrient, “A Film is Being Beaten: Notes on the Shock Cut and the Material Violence of Horror”, in Horror Film, →ISBN, page 231
    2 more examples

    Essential in music videos and common in flashbacks and dream sequences, the flash cut flickers many images across the screen over a period of a second or two. The effect passes quickly, but creates a visually intense moment.

    2006, Chris Kenworthy, Digital Video Production Cookbook, →ISBN, page 79

    There is a flash cut, and suddenly he is in alien gear instead, inside the alien Sarcophagus. This is a visual attempt on the part of the production team to suggest that the energy wraith from a distant world is re-shaping existence and reality on the Liberator.

    2006, John Kenneth Muir, A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7, the 1978-1981 British Television Space Adventure, →ISBN, page 121
Cite this entry
APA

flash cut. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flash%20cut

MLA

“flash cut.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flash%20cut. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “flash cut,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/flash%20cut.

Source: flash cut on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.