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sparkle

[spahr-kuhl]

Origin

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verb (used without object)

to issue in or as if in little sparks, as fire or light: The candlelight sparkled in the crystal.

to emit little sparks, as burning matter: The flames leaped and sparkled.

to shine or glisten with little gleams of light, as a brilliant gem; glitter; coruscate.

to effervesce, as wine.

to be brilliant, lively, or vivacious.

verb (used with object)

to cause to sparkle: moonlight sparkling the water; pleasure sparkling her eyes.

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to bark; yelp.

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

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noun

a little spark or fiery particle.

a sparkling appearance, luster, or play of light: the sparkle of a diamond.

brilliance, liveliness, or vivacity.

Origin:
1150–1200; Middle English (noun and v.); see spark¹, -le

Related forms

non·spar·kling, adjective

out·spar·kle, verb (used with object), -kled, -kling.

un·spark·ling, adjective

Synonyms
3. See glisten. 8. glitter.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To sparkle

Collins

World English Dictionary

sparkle (ˈspɑːk^əl)

—vb
1.	to issue or reflect or cause to issue or reflect bright points of light
2.	(intr) (of wine, mineral water, etc) to effervesce
3.	(intr) to be vivacious or witty

—n
4.	a point of light, spark, or gleam
5.	vivacity or wit

[C12 sparklen, frequentative of sparken to spark¹]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

sparkle

c.1200, frequentative verb form of M.E. sparke (see spark). Of wines, from early 15c. The noun is first attested early 14c. Sparkler in the fireworks sense is from 1879.

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glitter life light luster shine

Matching Quote

"For a symbol is like a rock dropped into a pool: it sends out ripples in all directions, and the ripples are in motion. Who can say where the last ripple disappears? One may have a sense that he at least knows approximately the center point of all those ripples, the point at which the stone struck the water. Yet even then he has trouble marking it precisely. How does one make a mark on water? ... The ripples continue to move and the light to change on the water and the longer one watches the more changes he sees. And such shifting-and-being-at-the-same-instant is of the very sparkle and life of poetry. Of poetry and of life itself. For the poem is a dynamic and living thing. One experiences it as one experiences life—as everybody but Mr. Gradgrind experiences life. One is never done with it: every time he looks he sees something new, and it changes even as he watches. And that very sense of continuity in fluidity is one of the kinds of knowledge, one of the ways of knowing, that only the arts can teach, poetry foremost among them."

-John Ciardi

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