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Fancy vs Flash - What's the difference?

fancy | flash | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between fancy and flash

is that fancy is the imagination while flash is a sudden, short, temporary burst of light.

As adjectives the difference between fancy and flash

is that fancy is decorative while flash is expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.

As verbs the difference between fancy and flash

is that fancy is to appreciate without jealousy or greed while flash is to briefly illuminate a scene.

As a proper noun Flash is

a popular multimedia platform, most often used for adding animation and interactivity to webpages.

fancy

English

Alternative forms

* (all obsolete)

Noun

(fancies)
  • The imagination.
  • * Milton
  • In the soul / Are many lesser faculties, that serve / Reason as chief. Among these fancy next / Her office holds.
  • An image or representation of anything formed in the mind; conception; thought; idea.
  • * Shakespeare
  • How now, my lord! why do you keep alone, / Of sorriest fancies your companions making?
  • An opinion or notion formed without much reflection; an impression.
  • * John Locke
  • I have always had a fancy that learning might be made a play and recreation to children.
  • A whim.
  • I had a fancy to learn to play the flute.
  • Love or amorous attachment.
  • He took a fancy to her.
  • The object of inclination or liking.
  • * Shakespeare
  • to fit your fancies to your father's will
  • Any sport or hobby pursued by a group.
  • Trainspotting is the fancy of a special lot.
    the cat fancy
  • The enthusiasts of such a pursuit.
  • He fell out of favor with the boxing fancy after the incident.
  • * De Quincey
  • a great book sale in London, which had congregated all the fancy
  • A diamond with a distinctive colour.
  • That which pleases or entertains the taste or caprice without much use or value.
  • * Mortimer
  • London pride is a pretty fancy for borders.
  • (obsolete) A sort of love song or light impromptu ballad.
  • (Shakespeare)
  • In the game of jacks, a style of play involving additional actions (contrasted with plainsies).
  • * 1970 , Marta Weigle, Follow my fancy: the book of jacks and jack games (page 22)
  • When you have mastered plainsies, the regular jack game, and have learned all the rules, you will be ready to use this part of the book. A fancy is a variation of plainsies which usually requires more skill than plainsies does.
  • * 2002 , Elizabeth Dana Jaffe, ?Sherry L. Field, ?Linda D. Labbo, Jacks (page 26)
  • When you get good at jacks, try adding a fancy . A fancy is an extra round at the end of a game. It makes the game a little harder. Jack Be Nimble, Around the World, or Black Widow are some fancies.

    Derived terms

    * flight of fancy * tickle someone's fancy

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Decorative.
  • This is a fancy shawl.
  • Of a superior grade.
  • This box contains bottles of the fancy grade of jelly.
  • Executed with skill.
  • He initiated the game winning play with a fancy , deked saucer pass to the winger.
  • (colloquial) Unnecessarily complicated.
  • I'm not keen on him and his fancy ideas.
  • (obsolete) Extravagant; above real value.
  • * Macaulay
  • This anxiety never degenerated into a monomania, like that which led his [Frederick the Great's] father to pay fancy prices for giants.

    Synonyms

    * (decorative) decorative, ornate * (unnecessarily complicated) highfalutin

    Antonyms

    * (decorative) plain, simple * (unnecessarily complicated) simple

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (formal) To appreciate without jealousy or greed.
  • I fancy your new car, but I like my old one just fine.
  • (British) would like
  • I fancy a burger tonight for dinner
    Do you fancy going to town this weekend?
  • (British, informal) To be sexually attracted to.
  • I fancy that girl over there.
  • (dated) To imagine, suppose.
  • I fancy you'll want something to drink after your long journey.
    Fancy meeting you here!
    Fancy that! I saw Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy kissing in the garden.
  • * John Locke
  • If our search has reached no farther than simile and metaphor, we rather fancy than know.
  • * Thackeray
  • He fancied he was welcome, because those around him were his kinsmen.
  • * 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
  • I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable.
  • To form a conception of; to portray in the mind; to imagine.
  • * Dryden
  • he whom I fancy , but can ne'er express
  • To have a fancy for; to like; to be pleased with, particularly on account of external appearance or manners.
  • * Shakespeare
  • We fancy not the cardinal.

    Synonyms

    * (be sexually attracted to) like (US) * (would like to) feel like

    Derived terms

    * fancy that

    See also

    * fantasy * fancy man * fancy oneself * fancypants * fancy woman

    flash

    English

    (wikipedia flash)

    Etymology 1

    In some senses, from (etyl) flasshen, a variant of flasken, , related to (m).

    Verb

    (es)
  • To briefly illuminate a scene.
  • :
  • To blink; to shine or illuminate intermittently.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
  • To be visible briefly.
  • :
  • *, chapter=5
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.}}
  • To make visible briefly.
  • :
  • :
  • (lb) To break forth like a sudden flood of light; to show a momentary brilliance.
  • *(Thomas Talfourd) (1795–1854)
  • *:names which have flashed and thundered as the watch words of unnumbered struggles
  • *(Matthew Arnold) (1822-1888)
  • *:The object is made to flash upon the eye of the mind.
  • * (1809-1892)
  • *:A thought flashed through me, which I clothed in act.
  • To flaunt; to display in a showy manner.
  • :
  • To communicate quickly.
  • :
  • :
  • (lb) To write to the memory of an updatable component such as a BIOS chip or games cartridge.
  • :
  • (lb) To release the pressure from a pressurized vessel.
  • (lb) To perform a .
  • To move, or cause to move, suddenly
  • *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=January 11, author=Jonathan Stevenson, work=BBC
  • , title= West Ham 2-1 Birmingham , passage=But they survived some real pressure as David Murphy flashed a header inches wide of Rob Green's right-hand post
  • (lb) To cover with a thin layer, as objects of glass with glass of a different colour.
  • To trick up in a showy manner.
  • *(Antony Brewer) (fl.1655)
  • *:Limning and flashing it with various dyes.
  • To strike and throw up large bodies of water from the surface; to splash.
  • *(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • *:He rudely flashed the waves about.
  • (lb) To telephone a person, only allowing the phone to ring once, in order to request a call back.
  • :
  • To evaporate suddenly. See (Flash evaporation).
  • To climb (a route) successfully on the first attempt.
  • Synonyms
    * (to briefly illuminate) glint * (telephoning) beep
    Derived terms
    * flashback * flasher * flashforward * flashing * flashlight * flash up
    See also
    * gleam

    Noun

    (es)
  • A sudden, short, temporary burst of light.
  • (figurative) A sudden and brilliant burst, as of wit or genius.
  • * Shakespeare
  • the flash and outbreak of a fiery mind
  • * Wirt
  • No striking sentiment, no flash of fancy.
  • (linguistics) A language, created by a minority to maintain cultural identity, that cannot be understood by the ruling class; for example, Ebonics.
  • A very short amount of time.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • The Persians and Macedonians had it for a flash .
  • * 1876, , The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ,
  • Quick—something must be done! done in a flash , too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention.
  • * 2011 , Phil McNulty, Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/15195384.stm]
  • Fabio Capello insisted Rooney was in the right frame of mind to play in stormy Podgorica despite his father's arrest on Thursday in a probe into alleged betting irregularities, but his flash of temper - when he kicked out at Miodrag Dzudovic - suggested otherwise.
  • Material]] left around the edge of a [[mould, moulded part at the parting line of the mould.
  • (Cockney) The strips of bright cloth or buttons worn around the collars of market traders.
  • (US, colloquial) A flashlight or electric torch.
  • * 1939 , (Raymond Chandler), The Big Sleep , Penguin 2011, p. 34:
  • I reached a flash out of my car pocket and went down-grade and looked at the car.
  • A light used for photography - a shortened form of camera flash.
  • (juggling) A pattern where each prop is thrown and caught only once.
  • (archaic) A preparation of capsicum, burnt sugar, etc., for colouring liquor to make it look stronger.
  • Synonyms
    * gleam, glint * (material left around the edge of a mould) moulding flash, molding flash
    Antonyms
    * (very short amount of time) aeon
    Hypernyms
    * light
    Derived terms
    * antiflash * camera flash * flashy * flashbulb * flash flood * flash in the pan * flash memory * flash photography * flash point * flashproof * in a flash * quick as a flash
    See also
    * sparkle, shimmer, glimmer, twinkle

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Expensive-looking and demanding attention; stylish; showy.
  • * 1892 , Banjo Paterson,
  • The barber man was small and flash , as barbers mostly are,
    He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar;
  • (UK, of a person) Having plenty of ready money.
  • (UK, of a person) Liable to show off expensive possessions or money.
  • (US, slang) Occurring very rapidly, almost instantaneously.
  • References

    * * For the sense ‘a short period of time’, the 1858 Notes and Queries of Martim de Albuquerque was consulted. From page 437 of the sixth volume of the second series, published in London by Bell & Dally, 186 Fleet Street, in 1858 : *: Ought we not to collect for posterity the various ways in which very short times are denoted. Besides the one at the head, there are, — in no time, in next to no time, in less than no time, in a trice, in a jiffy, in a brace of shakes, before you can say Jack Robinson, in a crack, in the squeezing of a lemon, in the doubling of your fist, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, in an instant, in a flash.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) flasche, flaske; compare (etyl) flache, (etyl) flaque, which is of (etyl) origin, akin to Middle Dutch .

    Noun

    (es)
  • A pool.
  • (Halliwell)
  • (engineering) A reservoir and sluiceway beside a navigable stream, just above a shoal, so that the stream may pour in water as boats pass, and thus bear them over the shoal.
  • Derived terms
    * flash wheel

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs ----