side flash

plural side flashes · alternative side-flash · alternative sideflash

1. A disruptive electrical discharge between a conductor traversed by an oscillatory current of high frequency (such as lightning) and neighbouring masses of metal, or between different parts of the same conductor.

   There's the side flash. That's when an animal or person is standing close to the tree, the tree is hit by lightning, and then the lightning jumps from tree to person or animal. The side flash usually kills one or a small number of animals, not large ones like with ground currents.

   2016 August 29, Angela Chen, quoting John Jensenius, “How exactly did lightning kill 323 reindeer in Norway?”, in The Verge, archived from the original on 29 May 2023

present singular third person side flashes · participle present side flashing · participle past side flashed · past side flashed · alternative side-flash · alternative sideflash

1. intransitiveOf electricity: to create a side flash.

   The charge traveled down the aluminum mast, and, not finding a path to ground, it side-flashed, blowing out the boat's hull.

   2010, Brunonia Barry, The Map of True Places, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 243