glimflashy en · ADJ
Etymology
17th century. First attested in Elisha Coles' An English Dictionary (1676). From glim (“eye”) + flashy (“flashing”). Figurative of someone's eyes flashing with anger.
Meanings
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(archaic, figuratively, slang) Angry
"Glimflashy, he was, saying we was all dicked in the nob or else we should be bummed, laced up in darbies, and tossed in the bilboes. Oh, gloomy hour—what a brangle."
1985, Kasey Michaels, The Savage Miss Saxon (Alphabet Regency Romance; 5):"Dewhurst gone all glimflashy on me."¶ Pete took a long glug of his beer. "What's he mad about?"
2014, Elizabeth Boyce, Honor Among Thieves (The Honorables; 1):"What ho, my kiddy!" cried Job, "don't be glimflashy; why you'd cry beef on a blater; the cove is a bob cull, and a pal of my own; and moreover, is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn."
1828, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter 82, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 385:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most glimflashy | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| glimflashey | alternative | lexicographic | |
| glimflashly | alternative | lexicographic | |
| more glimflashy | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| glim-flashy | alternative | lexicographic | |
| glimflushly | alternative | lexicographic |