flash in the pan

Cultural  

1. Someone or something that promises great success but soon fails: “The rock group that was all the rage last year turned out to be just another flash in the pan.”

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flash in the pan Idioms  

1. An effort or person that promises great success but fails. For example, His second novel proved to be a flash in the pan, or We had high hopes for the new director, but she was a flash in the pan. This metaphoric term alludes to the 17th-century flintlock musket, which could be fired only when the flash of the priming powder in the lockpan ignited the charge in the bore. When it failed to ignite, there was only a flash in the pan and the gun did not shoot.

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Example Sentences

The difference north of the border is that Hearts insists it isn’t a flash in the pan.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

In many ways, Reform has become a force extending far beyond a flash in the pan.

From BBC • Feb. 4, 2026

You can watch it and go, "Oh, you're just going home and you're just breaking up with these people. It's just a flash in the pan of your life," but it's a big moment.

From Salon • Nov. 28, 2024

Whether that will make Leverkusen perennial contenders or a one-season flash in the pan remains to be seen.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2024

I thought, then, that perhaps that first number was just a flash in the pan, and that succeeding issues would sink to the level of other Science Fiction magazines.

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, October, 1930 by Various