flash|back

flash|back «FLASH _BAK», noun, verb.

–n.

1. a break in the course of a motion picture, novel, or the like, to show some event or scene of a previous time; cutback: »

One is sometimes confused about where the flashbacks end and the present begins (Harper's).

2. a) the recurrence of a hallucination originally experienced under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug: »

This decline [in the use of LSD] has been due, in part, to the bad “trips” that terrified many users, the frequency of disturbing “flashbacks” (Sidney Cohen).

b) a vivid recurrence in the mind of a past event: »

Despite flashbacks and mounting anxiety, the ex-soldier followed the war news closely.

3. a sudden backward flash of fire or electricity, as from a burner: »

to be burned by a flashback.

–v.i.

1. to become visible in the form of flashbacks: »

While he convalesces at the home of his Quaker foster aunt outside Philadelphia, his whole life flashbacks before his eyes (Time).

2. to return (to) in the form of flashbacks: »

We then flashback to 1903 and the Mayfair bonbonnière where the tiny Dunglass first entered Debrett (Alan Coren).

–v.t.

to show in the form of flashbacks: »

In the flashbacked past, the reader can observe Pennington's speedily remarried wife (New York Times).