Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. pertaining to the sporting and criminal worlds.

1693		Congreve Old Bachelor I i: Yet it is often times to late with some of you young, termagant flashy sinners.
1696		J. Dunton Night-Walker Sept. 18: I found a Couple of flashy Young Sparks with him.
1781–2		J. Messink Choice of Harlequin I viii: Though you’re a flashy coachman, here the gagger holds the whip.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘Happy Jerry’ Collection of Songs II 61: The best of smarts and flashy dames / I’ve carried in my wherry.
c.1800		‘Young Morgan’ No. 8 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: Grand Bagnios was his lodging then / Among the flashy lasses.
1810		C. Dibdin Yngr Village Fete 22: rosetta: I’m told that men are oft untrue. justice: Aye, that’s your flashy dogs – They are.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 40: For, though, all know, that flashy spark / From C-ST-R-GH receiv’d a nobber.
1822		‘The Sprees of Tom, Jerry & Logick’ in C. Hindley James Catnach (1878) 124: Now, with your leave good folks I will conclude my flashy song.
1837–8		‘Slashing Costermonger’ Cuckold’s Nest 11: I’m quite a sporting karacter, / I wisits flashy places.
1840		Flash Mirror 13: ‘Which is the road to H—?’ a knowing cove once asked a flashy street paviour.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 59: Surrounded by her peculiar friends, the flashy crossmen of the town.
1852		‘The Cadger’s Ball’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 149: Mudfog — prince of flashy bucks.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 143/2: Gentlemen of slangy, flashy, or leary appearance kept knocking at the Jew’s door.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 314: [of a bookmaker] The flashy gentleman who so ostentatiously rattles the wealth contained in the natty wallet strapped to his side.
1885		Newcastle Courant 20 Feb. 2/3: The imitation ‘dicky,’ and the flashy suit, and the four-and-ninepenny hat.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 415: A sportin’, flashy sort ’er gent [...] ’ad a snug little crib, ’bout four mile out’er town.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 69: He drove the bargains, I believe, in a thin but subtle disguise of the flashy-seedy order, and always in the Cockney dialect of which he had made himself a master.
1911		‘Sing Sing No. 57,700’ My View on Books in N.Y. Times Mag. 30 Apr. 5/2: Pere Goriot [...] This one is about an old fog-eater who [...] was bled from the parlor to the garret by a couple of flashy dames that belonged to the family.
1916		W. Pett Ridge Madame Prince 204: She took up with a rather flashy sort of individual.
1944		C.B. Davis Rebellion of Leo McGuire (1953) 53: You’re dressed up a little flashy for practical purposes. A plain blue suit is better.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 213: The glib, flashy prankster.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 91: Bloom’s Midnight Frolics Cafe was the flashiest drop in town. Here the high-toned Camilles came to parade their feathers and their loot.

2. see flash adj. (1c)