different between flashy vs zooty

English

Etymology

flash +? -y

Pronunciation

• enPR: fl?sh'?, IPA^(key): /?flæ?i/

• Rhymes: -æ?i

Adjective

flashy (comparative flashier, superlative flashiest)

1. Showy; visually impressive, attention-getting, or appealing.

   The dancers wore flashy costumes featuring shiny sequins in many vibrant colors.

2. (dated, poetic) Flashing; producing flashes.

   a flashy light

   • 1826, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, The Works of Vergil: Translated into English Prose

     […] the accustomed warmth pierced his marrow, and ran thrilling through his shaken bones; just as when at times, with forked thunder burst, a chinky stream of fire in flashy lightning shoots athwart the skies.

3. (archaic) Drunk; tipsy

Synonyms

• (visually impressive): See also Thesaurus:gaudy
• (producing flashes): blinking, fulgorous
• (drunk): See also Thesaurus:drunk

Translations

Anagrams

• fly ash

English

Etymology

zoot +? -y

Adjective

zooty (comparative more zooty, superlative most zooty)

1. (dated, informal) stylish, flashy, snappy.
   • 1949, Dwight Martin, “City of Defeat,” Time, 18 April, 1949,^[1]

     Only the silver dollar hawkers have kept up their professional spirits. They hang around street corners, clinking gleaming stacks of coins, their orthodox blue Chinese gowns topped by broad-brimmed brown fedoras that give them, from the neck up, that zooty air usually associated with Broadway characters in Li’l Abner.

   • 1988 Martin A. Janis, The Joys of Aging, Dallas: Word Publishing, p. 122,^[2]

     A man of 75 may be feeling pretty frisky. Frisky enough that he starts chasing the girls of 25. He divorces his wife, buys a set of “zooty threads” as he calls them, and a zippy convertible, and has himself a big time in Las Vegas.

   • 1990, Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia, London: Faber & Faber, 1991, Part Two, Chapter Eighteen, p. 267,^[3]

     I could see he’d become pretty zooty, little Allie. His clothes were Italian and immaculate, daring and colourful without being vulgar, and all expensive and just right: the zips fitted, the seams were straight, and the socks were perfect—you can always tell a quality dresser by the socks.

   • 2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book One, “The Silver Spoon,” p. 13,^[4]

     From the tender age of twelve, my mother had been unable to start her day without the aid of at least two cups of immoderately strong, tar-black, unsweetened coffee, a taste for which she had picked up from the tugboat captains and zooty bachelors who filled the boardinghouse where she had grown up.