Gather short male is flash (5)

I believe the answer is:

gleam

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'is flash' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'gather short male' is the wordplay.
'short' suggests taking the first letters.
'male' becomes 'leam' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The initial letter of 'gather' is 'g'.
'g'+'leam'='GLEAM'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for gleam that I've seen before include "Moderate glow" , "Glow of light" , "Ray" , "Beam of soft light, comes and goes" , "shaft" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.