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in a flash

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, in a jiffy or second or trice . Quickly, immediately. For example, I'll be with you in a flash , or He said he'd be done in a jiffy , or I'll be off the phone in a second , or I felt a drop or two, and in a trice there was a downpour . The first idiom alludes to a flash of lightning and dates from about 1800. The word jiffy , meaning “a short time,” is of uncertain origin and dates from the late 1700s (as does the idiom using it); a second , literally one-sixtieth of a minute, has been used vaguely to mean “a very short time” since the early 1800s; and trice originally meant “a single pull at something” and has been used figuratively since the 1500s.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Then came the lasagna, which disappeared in a flash.

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Sarah Sherman's impersonation of Aimee Lou Wood on a recent episode of "Saturday Night Live" was gone in a flash, but that didn't lessen the sting for the star of "The White Lotus."

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Each member of this innocent family has had their lives forever changed in a flash.

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She’s gone in a flash but leaves the audience with a message.

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�� makes “Così” modern is that it underscores just how quickly and radically things can change in a flash.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

in a fix in a flutter

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