flashbulb

or flash bulb

[flash-buhlb]

noun Photography.

a glass bulb, filled with oxygen and aluminum or zirconium wire or foil, which, when ignited electrically, burns with a brilliant flash to provide momentary illumination of a subject.

Origin of flashbulb

First recorded in 1930–35; flash + bulb

Also called flash.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for flashbulb

Contemporary Examples of flashbulb

The tangle of enormous fake diamonds resting on top of her cleavage sparkles at every flashbulb.
And The Escort of The Year Is… Backstage at The Sex Oscars
Scott Bixby
March 24, 2014
It's as though when we first learn of it a flashbulb has imprinted in our recall the details of the event.
The Lost JFK Tapes and What We Now Know
Gerald Posner
November 23, 2009

Historical Examples of flashbulb

You aim, pull the trigger, and the shutter opens as the flashbulb goes off.
Creatures of the Abyss
Murray Leinster
It was what he'd seen when the flashbulb of his gun-camera went off.
Creatures of the Abyss
Murray Leinster

British Dictionary definitions for flashbulb

flashbulb

noun

photog a small expendable glass light bulb formerly used to produce a bright flash of lightAlso called: photoflash Compare electronic flash

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