FLASH, to shew or expose any thing; as I flash’d him a bean, I shewed him a guinea. Don’t flash your sticks, don’t expose your pistols, &c.
FLASH-COVE, or COVESS, the landlord or landlady of a flash-ken.
FLASH-CRIB, FLASH-KEN, or FLASH-PANNY, a public-house resorted to chiefly by family people, the master of which is commonly an old prig, and not unfrequently an old-lag.
FLASH-MAN, a favourite or fancy-man; but this term is generally applied to those dissolute characters upon the town, who subsist upon the liberality of unfortunate women; and who, in return, are generally at hand during their nocturnal perambulations, to protect them should any brawl occur, or should they be detected in robbing those whom they have picked up.
FLASH-MOLLISHER, a family-woman.
FLASH-SONG, a song interlarded with flash words, generally relating to the exploits of the prigging fraternity in their various branches of depredation.
FLESH-BAG, a shirt.
FLAT. In a general sense, any honest man, or square cove, in opposition to a sharp or cross-cove; when used particularly, means the person whom you have a design to rob or defraud, who is termed the flat, or the flatty-gory. A man who does any foolish or imprudent act, is called a flat; any person who is found an easy dupe to the designs of the family, is said to be a prime flat. It’s a good flat that’s never down, is a proverb among flash people; meaning, that though a man may be repeatedly duped or taken in, he must in the end have his eyes opened to his folly.
FLAT-MOVE. Any attempt or project that miscarries, or any act of folly or mismanagement in human affairs is said to be a flat move.
FLATS, a cant name for playing-cards.