scintillate

verb scintillates · scintillating · scintillated

1. intransitive To give off sparks; to shine as if emanating sparks; to twinkle or glow. Much interest appears to have been lately excited in England by Dr. Clarke's Experiments on the Blow-pipe, and the dangers of explosion attempted to be guarded against, by various contrivances. The following letter inserted in the Philosophical Magazine for December 1816, will show the importance at
2. Of a star or other celestial body: to vary rapidly in brightness; to twinkle. Do the stars scintillate at all altitudes? Is there any altitude at which it ceases to manifest itself? At Morges the stars in general scintillate at all altitudes, although feebly near the zenith; but on the nights when the scintillation is very faint, it ceases completely at a zenith distance of 4
3. Especially of a phosphor: to emit a flash of light upon absorbing ionizing radiation.
4. intransitive To dazzle or to impress.
5. archaic, transitive To throw off like sparks. As a boy young Arabin took up the cudgels on the side of the Tractarians, and at Oxford he sat for a while at the feet of the great [John Henry] Newman. To this cause he lent all his faculties. For it he concocted verses, for it he made speeches, for it he scintillated the brightest sparks of his qu