flash drive

American

Trademark, ThumbDrive, or flashdrive

noun

Computers.

a very small, portable, solid-state hard drive that can be inserted into a USB port for storage and retrieval of data.

flash drive British

noun

a pocket-sized portable computer hard drive and data storage device See also key drive pen drive thumb drive USB drive

"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

Etymology

Origin of flash drive

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The AWC alleges that once Dito opened the contents of the Flash Drive, he saw that it contained nonpublic customer information, which he subsequently copied.

From Forbes • Sep. 21, 2011

Each of the customer account statements on the Flash Drive displayed non-public financial information including customer names, addresses, account numbers, financial positions, broker identification numbers and account values.

From Forbes • Sep. 21, 2011

The AWC states that “Dito took the flash drive to his parents’ home, and uploaded the contents of the Flash Drive to his parents’ home computer.”

From Forbes • Sep. 21, 2011

Dito sent two emails containing the Flash Drive customer data to his JTF email address.

From Forbes • Sep. 21, 2011

Watch Flash Drive are 256 MB of memory that you can use to store digital pictures, school reports or any other files to take on the go.

From Time Magazine Archive

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