Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To send forth light in flashes; sparkle. synonym: flash.
- intransitive verb To be scintillating.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To emit sparks; hence, to sparkle or twinkle, as the fixed stars.
- Synonyms Sparkle, Glister, etc. (see
glare , intransitive verb) coruscate.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To emit sparks, or fine igneous particles.
- intransitive verb To sparkle, as the fixed stars.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To give off
sparks ; to shine as if emanating sparks; totwinkle or glow. - verb transitive To throw off like sparks.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb physics: fluoresce momentarily when struck by a charged particle or high-energy photon
- verb reflect brightly
- verb be lively or brilliant or exhibit virtuosity
- verb give off
- verb emit or reflect light in a flickering manner
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A small, circular wave emanating from a central point. scintillate
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You could say he's a shining example, except le Carré's point is that while Smiley's powers scintillate, he's practically a cipher when he's not putting those talents to work.
David Finkle: First Nighter: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alec Guinness Spectacular on DVD David Finkle 2011
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A small, circular wave emanating from a central point. scintillate
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A small, circular wave emanating from a central point. scintillate
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I know he fails to scintillate and he does seem to be around more and more often but they don't need to be so outwardly mean and I told them so.
The Juniper Days – Part II, The Diary Alison Earls 2011
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He does occasionally handcuff me (if such things scintillate you) to his life-sized, diapered replica of Roman Polanski, though.
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As the Bang on a Can All-Stars 'all-Reich program Thursday at Strathmore amply demonstrated, the composer's musical means may be minimal -- layering simple lines of rhythm, shifting a repeated fragment of melody out of phase with itself, varying the color of a relentlessly hammered chord by spotlighting individual instruments -- but the resulting textures bubble and scintillate with an engagingly "maximalist" energy.
Music review of Bang on a Can All-Stars at Strathmore Hall Post 2010
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Robert Green's handling error aside, they would not have shipped at all in Group C. Slovenia, of course, did not scintillate often as an attacking force but when they did threaten, Terry made an impression.
World Cup 2010: John Terry back at the heart of England's hopes Dominic Fifield at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium 2010
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What has mattered in Hodgkin's art, and still does, is not simply a brilliant way with colour, although it would be hard to find many painters of the past 100 years who could out-scintillate a work such as that bedroompicture, with its chromatic suggestion of coals glowing in a blackened grate.
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If zinc sulfide were added to the mix at the dry gel stage, the resultant glassy substance should scintillate with the radiation of the waste.
Archive 2008-01-01 James Killus 2008
quaxanta commented on the word scintillate
Scintillate, scintillate, globule lucific.
Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.
(a more, ahem, wordy version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
December 7, 2006
oroboros commented on the word scintillate
"sin till late"
December 28, 2006
seanahan commented on the word scintillate
That's pretty funny oroboros.
December 29, 2006
bilby commented on the word scintillate
More of the twinkle twinkle synonym poem:
Scintillate, scintillate, globule lucific,
Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.
Loftily poised on the ether capacious,
Strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous.
- by John Raymond Carson
June 12, 2017
qms commented on the word scintillate
See comments at sparkle.
June 12, 2017