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shoulder flash

shoulder flash

6.8
A cloth badge worn on the shoulder of a military uniform that shows a soldier's unit
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : distintivo de hombro
  • She received a shoulder flash for her service.

Examples

  • He carefully sewed the new shoulder flash onto his jacket before the ceremony.

  • The soldier proudly displayed his shoulder flash, which identified his regiment.

  • Each division in the army is marked by a unique shoulder flash on their uniforms.

  • The soldier proudly wore his shoulder flash.

  • Lieutenant Jones proudly wore the shoulder flash of his battalion on his uniform.

  • She could easily identify the different shoulder flashes that represented each military unit.

  • During the parade, the soldiers displayed their shoulder flashes as a symbol of their division.

Synonyms

flash
vsshoulder flash
14 5.3

A bright patch sewn onto clothing to show who someone is

serves mainly to show division or unit rather than for decoration
shoulder patch
vsshoulder flash
  • US
1 4.2

A cloth badge on a uniform shoulder showing rank or group

is limited to showing division or unit rather than rank or broad affiliation
shoulder mark
vsshoulder flash
  • UK
6.7

A small cloth or badge on the shoulder of a uniform that shows rank

focuses on division or unit identification rather than rank

Surface Forms

Morphology

shoulder + flash

The meaning is directly compositional: 'shoulder' supplies the location and 'flash' denotes a small bright badge or emblem, so a learner who knows both words can infer it is a badge worn on the shoulder. Although 'flash' in this badge sense is somewhat specialized, the noun+noun compound pattern and cross-linguistic equivalents make the overall sense predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Shoulder flash comes from the image of a bright cloth patch sewn on the shoulder that you can see at a quick glance. The word flash suggests something bright and easy to notice, so the phrase now means the cloth emblem that shows a soldier's 'division' or 'unit'.