flashgun

[ flash-guhn ]

/ ˈflæʃˌgʌn /

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noun Photography.

a device that simultaneously discharges a flashbulb and operates a camera shutter.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of flashgun

First recorded in 1925–30; flash + gun¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use flashgun in a sentence

“You can imagine the sound of that gun on a Bronx street,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce says.
Shot Down During the NYPD Slowdown|Michael Daly|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
That act forever sealed his feeling for the Chief, bound it up with the war, with violence, with the gun.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile|Robert Ward|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
I mean, the reality of it was, I had to go out and get on a horse, and ride in, shoot the gun — how hard was that, right?
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile|Robert Ward|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST
They were the machine gun bullets coming from the ambush when my company got hit.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile|Robert Ward|January 3, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Frias—who was arrested in 2013 for interfering with public duties and public intoxication—was not carrying a gun at the time.
Texas Gun Slingers Police the Police—With a Black Panthers Tactic|Brandy Zadrozny|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The vision—it had been an instantaneous flash after all and nothing more—had left his mind completely for the time.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
A flash of surprise and pleasure lit the fine eyes of the haughty beauty perched up there on the palace wall.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
"A camp-fire would hardly flash and die out like that, Sarge," he answered thoughtfully.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair
This was no strange sight to the boy by that time, but it was awkward in the circumstances, for he had neither gun nor spear.
The Giant of the North|R.M. Ballantyne
He turned at the sound of my voice with vastly more concern than he'd betrayed under the muzzle of Piegan's gun.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair

British Dictionary definitions for flashgun

flash gun

noun

a type of electronic flash, attachable to or sometimes incorporated in a camera, that emits a very brief flash of light when the shutter is open

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012