2. (common).—A brothel; a haunt of loose women.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum (Flash song quoted under flash-panneys). Next for his favourite mot the kiddey looks about, And if she’s in a flash-panny he swears he’ll have her out; So he fences all his togs to buy her duds, and then He frisks his master’s lob to take her from the bawdy ken.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. (ed. 1840). You know how little I frequent flash-houses.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 380. Those troublesome swells, Who come from the play-houses, flash-kens, and hells.
1840. Macaulay, Essays: ‘Lord Clive.’ The lowest wretches that the company’s crimps could pick up in the flash-houses of London.
1852. Bristed, Upper Ten Thousand, p. 34. That is Mary Black who keeps the greatest flash house in Leonard Street.
Flash-Cove (also Flash-Companion), subs. (common).—A thief; a sharper; a fence (q.v.).
1825. E. Kent, Modern Flash Dict. Flash-cove, the keeper of a place for the reception of stolen goods.
1839. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 60.—‘Awake! To be sure I am, my flash-cove!’ replied Sheppard.
Flash-Man, subs. (old).—Primarily a man talking flash (see quots., 1823 and 1862); hence, a rogue, a thief, the landlord of a flash-case (q.v.). Also a fancy-joseph (for synonyms, see Fancy-man). In America, a person with no visible means of support, but living in style and ‘showing up’ well.