flash in the pan
flash in the pan noun: a transient occurrence with no long-term impact.
Noun
flash in the pan (plural flashes in the pan or flash in the pans)
- A transient occurrence with no long-term impact.
- The concept turned out to be merely a flash in the pan and is no longer used.
- The new dinner lady: 10 years on, can an Ottolenghi chef prove Jamie Oliver's revolution wasn't a flash in the pan? [title]2015 April 4, Sally Weale, “The new dinner lady: 10 years on, can an Ottolenghi chef prove Jamie Oliver's revolution wasn't a flash in the pan”, in The Guardian
- A career notable for early success that is not followed by any significant accomplishment.
- He was named Best New Director of 1940, but his career was a flash in the pan.
flash in the pan meaning in Thai
flash in the pan in Thai
- transient occurrence with no long-term effect
- ไฟไหม้ฟาง fai-mâi-faang
Forms of flash in the pan
| plural | flashes in the pan |
|---|---|
| plural | flash in the pans |
Origin of flash in the pan
From the days of flintlock firearms, where the main charge was intended to be fired by a small charge of gunpowder in the flash pan. If the resultant fire did not pass through the touch hole and ignite the main charge, it produced noise and smoke, but no substantial effect, and was termed a flash in the pan. Sometimes called fluff in the pan, the term refers to any ineffectual, short, spasmodic effort that dies in the attempt, such as an explosion of priming in the lockpan of a gun while the gun itself does not go off.
Questions about flash in the pan
- What does flash in the pan mean?
- Flash in the pan means a transient occurrence with no long-term impact.
- What is flash in the pan in Thai?
- Flash in the pan in Thai is ไฟไหม้ฟาง (fai-mâi-faang). See Flash in the pan meaning in Thai.
- What part of speech is flash in the pan?
- Flash in the pan is a noun.
- What is the plural of flash in the pan?
- The plural of flash in the pan is flashes in the pan.
Words near flash in the pan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: flash in the pan (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-flash in the pan.ogg.
Cite this entry: “flash in the pan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flash_in_the_pan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.