flashback

Plural: flashbacks

Noun

• a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story
• an unexpected but vivid recurrence of a past experience (especially a recurrence of the effects of an hallucinogenic drug taken much earlier)
• A dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative.
• A vivid mental image of a past trauma or other sensation that the trauma is happening in the present, especially one that recurs.
• A similar recurrence of the effects of a hallucinogenic drug.
• The condition of the flame propagating down the hose of an oxy-fuel welding system.
• A query that operates against data from an earlier time, before it was changed.

Verb

• To undergo a flashback; to experience a vivid mental image from the past.

Synonyms

analepsis, flash back

Antonyms

flash-forward

Related Words

flashforward