Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. idiomatic A transient occurrence with no long-term effect.
- n. idiomatic A career notable for early success not followed by significant accomplishment.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. a failure or a poor performance, especially after a normal or auspicious start; also, a person whose initial performance appears augur success but who fails to achieve anything notable. From 4th pan, n., sense 3 -- part of a flintlock. Occasionally, the powder in the pan of a flintlock would flash without conveying the fire to the charge, and the ball would fail to be discharged. Thus, a good or even spectacular beginning that eventually achieves little came to be called a
flash in the pan . - n. the flashing of the priming in the pan of a flintlock musket without discharging the piece; hence, sudden, spasmodic effort that accomplishes nothing.
- n. See under Flash.
WordNet 3.0
- n. someone who enjoys transient success but then fails
Examples
“As for your remaining free, that's all very well to think during the interregnum, but a man without a true love is a ship without ballast, a one-tined fork, half a pair of scissors, an utter flash in the pan ....”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘flash in the pan’.
-
Idioms and Phrases
hack someone off, scrape the bottom..., haul over the coals, rake over the coals, have a thin time, down one's alley, up one's alley, shoot the bull, bite the bullet, up the creek, cudgel one' brains, plain as a pikestaff and 156 more...
-
Favorite Words That Are Really More L...
Culling my Favorite Words That Aren't Really Words list.
sausage fest, brick shithouse, flying spaghetti ..., velly intellesting, chinese firedrill, honkus of the bonkus, acoustic shadow, cheerily cheer up..., jeet yet, grand poobah, sticking it to th..., unbridled mirth and 270 more...
-
in words out there
inpour, inturn, intail, inend, inhear, inhere, incense, immesh, a drop in a bucket, a shot in the dark, alice in wonderland, bear in mind and 66 more...
-
Sarilas's Words
chortle, serendipity, inept, retro, tenacious, penchant, mediocrity, claret, gust, pomp, circumstance, pageantry and 97 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for flash in the pan.
chained_bear Yeah, I think that's the connotation that most people mean when they use this phrase--a fleeting event, rather than an ineffectual one. But I guess those meanings kind of intersect in this saying. Oct 21, 2007
oroboros Interestingly, to me, is that an actual flash in the pan, when it catches the sun just right, is a good metaphor for a fleeting event. An inconvenient, incommensurate feature of the metaphor is that it's hardly of no effect when it blinds you momentarily! Oct 20, 2007
chained_bear The origin of this phrase is similar to that of "going off half-cocked." On black-powder muskets, a flash in the pan occurs when the flint strikes the hammer and creates a spark that ignites the powder in the pan (outside the barrel), but the flame does not transfer into the barrel. The powder in the barrel doesn't ignite, and the bullet (if there is one) doesn't go anywhere. So it's just a flash--no shot, no effect. Oct 20, 2007