Flashing is the metal strip that seals a joint on a roof. Lead flashing, replace the flashing, the flashing has failed.
It goes where a roof meets a wall, a chimney or another roof, and it is where most leaks begin. Lead is the traditional material in Britain and is still preferred; there are cheaper alternatives that fail sooner. Failed flashing is one of the commonest findings in a house survey. Note that flashing is also the ordinary participle of flash, and a separate word for a criminal act of indecent exposure.
1nounflashingA metal strip that seals a joint on a roof.
“The roofer replaced the flashing around the chimney to stop the leak.”
flashing is a roofing seal.
Middle English
flasshen
English
flasshen
English
flash
English, today
flashing
Built from
From flash + ing. flash comes from English flasshen. In some senses, from Middle English flasshen, a variant of flasken, flaskien (“to sprinkle, splash”), which was likely of imitative of the sound origin; in other senses probably of gmq origin akin to Swedish dialectal flasa (“to burn brightly, blaze”), related to flare. Compare also Icelandic flasa (“to rush, go hastily”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA