side flash

English

Alternative forms

• side-flash, sideflash

Noun

side flash (plural side flashes)

1. A disruptive electrical discharge between a conductor traversed by an oscillatory current of high frequency (such as lightning) and neighbouring masses of metal, or between different parts of the same conductor.
   • 2016 August 29, Angela Chen, quoting John Jensenius, “How exactly did lightning kill 323 reindeer in Norway?”, in The Verge‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-05-29:

     There's the side flash. That's when an animal or person is standing close to the tree, the tree is hit by lightning, and then the lightning jumps from tree to person or animal. The side flash usually kills one or a small number of animals, not large ones like with ground currents.

Verb

side flash (third-person singular simple present side flashes, present participle side flashing, simple past and past participle side flashed)

1. (intransitive) Of electricity: to create a side flash.
   • 2010, Brunonia Barry, The Map of True Places, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 243:

     The charge traveled down the aluminum mast, and, not finding a path to ground, it side-flashed, blowing out the boat's hull.

Anagrams

• ashfields, shadflies