glimflashy

English

Alternative forms
  • glim-flashy, glimflashey, glimflashly, glimflushly

Etymology

17th century. First attested in Elisha Coles' An English Dictionary (1676).[1][2] From glim (“eye”) +‎ flashy (“flashing”). Figurative of someone's eyes flashing with anger.

Adjective

glimflashy (comparative more glimflashy, superlative most glimflashy)

  1. (archaic, slang, figuratively) Angry
    • 1828, Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, chapter 82, in Pelham: or The Adventures of a Gentleman, page 385:
      "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."
    • 1985, Michaels, Kasey, The Savage Miss Saxon (Alphabet Regency Romance; 5):
      "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."
    • 2014, Boyce, Elizabeth, Honor Among Thieves (The Honorables; 1):
      "Dewhurst gone all glimflashy on me."¶ Pete took a long glug of his beer. "What's he mad about?"

Synonyms

References
  1. Kerling, Johan (2013) Chaucer in Early English Dictionaries, Springer, →ISBN, page 216
  2. Coles, Elisha (1676) An English Dictionary, London: Peter Parker, published 1692, page GIP-GLO
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