flashy

comparative flashier · superlative flashiest

1. Showy; visually impressive, attention-getting, or appealing.

   The dancers wore flashy costumes featuring shiny sequins in many vibrant colors.

   Synonyms: glossy, prominent, brash, pizazzy, sporty, attention-grabbing, conspicuous, eye-catching

2. Marked by frequent variations in water amount (compare flash flood).

   1 more example

   Flow criteria were used for classification […] The criteria chosen were […] (4) the rate of change of flow with time (logged serial correlation coefficients are 0.2 in flashy rivers, but up to 0.98 in stable ones); and (5) the velocity associated with average daily flows (this varies from 1.03 m/s in flashy rivers to 0.08 m/s in lowland ones).

   2014 May 8, S. M. Haslam, River Plants of Western Europe, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 24

3. datedpoeticFlashing; producing flashes.

   a flashy light

   1 more example

   […] the accustomed warmth pierced his marrow, and ran thrilling through his shaken bones; just as when at times, with forked thunder burst, a chinky stream of fire in flashy lightning shoots athwart the skies.

   1826, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, The Works of Vergil: Translated into English Prose

   Synonyms: blinking, fulgorous

4. archaicDrunk; tipsy.

   1 more example

   Indeed, he was 'dithguthted' at his condition; and if upon the occasion just described he had allowed himself to be somewhat 'intoxicated with liquor,' I must aver that I do not recollect another instance in which this worthy little gentleman suffered himself to be similarly overtaken. Now and then a little 'flashy' he might be, but nothing more serious—and rely upon it, this was no common virtue in those days.

   1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

   Synonyms: buzzed, lit, squiffy, Adrian Quist, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed