Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sparkling or glistening light.
  • noun Brilliant or showy, often superficial attractiveness.
  • noun Small pieces of light-reflecting decorative material.
  • intransitive verb To sparkle brilliantly; glisten: synonym: flash.
  • intransitive verb To be reflected as a sparkling or glistening light.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To shine or gleam with scattered light; emit scintillating flashes of light; sparkle; glisten: as, a glittering sword.
  • Hence—2. To be brilliant or showy; be attractive from showiness: as, the glittering scenes of a court.
  • Synonyms Glisten, Gleam, etc. See glare, intransitive verb
  • noun Sparkling or scintillating light; brilliancy; splendor; luster: as, the glitter of arms; the glitter of royal equipage.
  • noun A talus slope.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A bright, sparkling light; brilliant and showy luster; brilliancy
  • intransitive verb To sparkle with light; to shine with a brilliant and broken light or showy luster; to gleam.
  • intransitive verb To be showy, specious, or striking, and hence attractive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A bright, sparkling light; brilliant and showy luster; brilliancy; as, the glitter of arms; the glitter of royal equipage.
  • noun A shiny, decorative adornment, sometimes sprinkled on glue to make simple artwork.
  • verb To sparkle with light; to shine with a brilliant and broken light or showy luster; to gleam; as, a glittering sword.
  • verb To be showy, specious, or striking, and hence attractive; as, the glittering scenes of a court.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be shiny, as if wet
  • noun the occurrence of a small flash or spark
  • noun the quality of shining with a bright reflected light

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gliteren, to sparkle, from Old Norse glitra; see ghel- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Finally, if you can produce the word glitter, go all out!

    Forbes.com: News YEC Women 2011

  • As for the cover, crazy hot pink and glitter is exactly what Tammy would have chose!

    Talking Comics with Tim: Esther Pearl Watson | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment 2009

  • Others are hole-punched in glitter paper, and others are swirled with polymark or scribbles paint and glitter glue.

    Hey, Cupcake! 2009

  • Others are hole-punched in glitter paper, and others are swirled with polymark or scribbles paint and glitter glue.

    Archive 2009-01-01 2009

  • Taken your 3-7 year-old-girl for a make-over at one of those stores that drowns the girl in glitter, gives them a mani-pedi and helps them "discover" the joys of being a girl;

    Archive 2009-03-01 2009

  • It's not when the festival's organizer invites everyone back to his grandmother's house, where his father shakes your hand and his mother presents a traditional homecooked dinner; it's not even when the said organizer is shirtless, crowd-surfing and covered in glitter at the afterparty.

    Lauren Quinn: A Hunger for More: Fame Festival Opening Lauren Quinn 2010

  • It's not when the festival's organizer invites everyone back to his grandmother's house, where his father shakes your hand and his mother presents a traditional homecooked dinner; it's not even when the said organizer is shirtless, crowd-surfing and covered in glitter at the afterparty.

    Lauren Quinn: A Hunger for More: Fame Festival Opening Lauren Quinn 2010

  • Do you know how you show your appreciation for a man who has covered half of his upper body in glitter?

    Oh, Kanye! 2009

  • It's not when the festival's organizer invites everyone back to his grandmother's house, where his father shakes your hand and his mother presents a traditional homecooked dinner; it's not even when the said organizer is shirtless, crowd-surfing and covered in glitter at the afterparty.

    Lauren Quinn: A Hunger for More: Fame Festival Opening Lauren Quinn 2010

  • Taken your 3-7 year-old-girl for a make-over at one of those stores that drowns the girl in glitter, gives them a mani-pedi and helps them "discover" the joys of being a girl;

    The Slut-ification of Dora is now complete 2009

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