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  1. spangle love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A small, often circular piece of sparkling metal or plastic sewn especially on garments for decoration.
  2. n. A small sparkling object, drop, or spot: spangles of sunlight.
  3. v. To adorn or cause to sparkle by covering with or as if with spangles: Lights spangled the night skyline.
  4. v. To sparkle in the manner of spangles.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A small piece of glittering material, such as metal foil; hence, any small sparkling object. Formerly spangles were often lozenge-shaped; now they are usually circular, very small, and sewed upon theatrical and other garments through holes with which they are pierced. In old embroidery they were of many forms.
  2. n. One of the small metal clasps used in fastening the tapes and wires of a hoop-skirt.
  3. n. A spongy excrescence on the oak. See oakspangle.
  4. To set or cover with many small bright objects or points; especially, to decorate with spangles. as a garment.
  5. To glitter; glisten, like anything set with spangles.
  6. n. One of many small, somewhat triangular spots on the wing of a pigeon or fowl.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A small piece of sparkling metallic material sewn on to a garment as decoration; a sequin.
  2. n. Any small sparkling object.
  3. v. intransitive To sparkle, flash or coruscate.
  4. v. transitive To fix spangles to a garment.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A small plate or boss of shining metal; something brilliant used as an ornament, especially when stitched on the dress.
  2. n. Figuratively, any little thing that sparkless.
  3. v. To set or sprinkle with, or as with, spangles; to adorn with small, distinct, brilliant bodies.
  4. v. To show brilliant spots or points; to glisten; to glitter.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. glitter as if covered with spangles
  2. v. decorate with spangles
  3. n. adornment consisting of a small piece of shiny material used to decorate clothing

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English spangel ("a small piece of ornamental metal; a small ornament") (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English spangel, diminutive of spange, from Middle Dutch, clasp; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The Copper Beeches and Aspens spangle goldenly against the steel-blue sky.”

    Fictionaut: Rodeo Days

  • “The beautifully-lit Beliebers were the real stars of Bieber's show, but Katy Perry makes you actually believe in the ridiculous transformative spangle of pop music all over again.”

    The Guardian: Justin Bieber; Katy Perry – review

  • “Readers have taken me to task since my last Country Diary on the pools that spangle the high ridges like glittering sequins.”

    The Guardian: Country diary: Lake District

  • “Remember when I was a disco dangle with a spangle sweating in my sticky pocket caning pop and disco dangle darling watching you?”

    Fictionaut: Bone Dust Disco

  • “The silvery leaves of the eucalyptus trees spangle like tinsel.”

    Simon & Schuster: The Lady Matador’s Hotel

  • “On a dark night, you can usually spot AE hanging out on the northwestern perimeter of a spangle of stars about two finger-widths east of Iota Aurigae.”

    Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast: February 5-7, 2010 | Universe Today

  • “Every person on the bus stared downward now into the mirror of the lake, as they crossed above it, and saw the spangle of their own lighted passing.”

    Simon & Schuster: Songs of Love & Death

  • “Cut-crystal 16th notes scamper and dangle drop splink twinkly-plink splank spangle mingle and dance in a pool of window panes disentangle fingers wrangle piano lingo from a hip Little Dipper tickle ivory dimples that dive and make ripples in the Tiffanypizzazzangle cascade which is jazz .......”

    Piano Rain

  • “  He is pointing out the spangle of stars in the sky, each constellation.”

    Fictionaut: These Dreams We Are Having

  • “It's the King's shamefully audacious, extraterrestrial, spangle-infused, semi-precious cubic-zirconium encrusted, universe-of-razzle-dazzled, garish polyester jumpsuits (often pushed to maximum density as the pounds kept adding on) that have come to symbolize the extremes of the 70s.”

    Michael DeJong: Thank-You-Verah-Musshhh.

Show 10 more examples...

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synonyms (5)

Words with the same meaning

  1. glisten
  1. glitter
  1. paillette
  1. start
  1. twinkle

hypernyms (12)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. glint
  2. glisten
  1. shine
  2. gleam
  1. glitter
  2. grace
  1. decorate
  2. beautify
  1. ornament
  2. adorn
  1. embellish
  2. adornment

same context (20)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. scribner
  2. jimi
  3. blick
  4. medula
  1. eluxury
  2. Fiona
  3. wati
  4. kq
  1. France
  2. gyü
  3. crimson-trimmed
  4. handsel
  1. mgload
  2. apopo
  3. red-fringed
  4. gaud
  1. tri-coloured
  2. ticker-tape
  3. green-and-black
  4. spike-like

rhymes (16)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Angle
  2. Wrangell
  3. angle
  1. bangle
  2. dangle
  3. disentangle
  1. entangle
  2. fangle
  3. jangle
  1. mangle
  2. newfangle
  3. strangle
  1. tangle
  2. untangle
  3. wangle
  1. wrangle

reverse dictionary (10)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. coquette
  2. bejewel
  1. padlette
  2. spang
  1. enspangle
  2. sequin
  1. paillette
  2. lozenge
  1. o
  2. sow

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. light

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tagging (2)

Words tagged ‘spangle’

  1. oak spangle
  1. oakspangle

Wordmap

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘spangle’.

More lists containing ‘spangle’

Comments

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  • chained_bear Okay, point taken.

    ... It is a lovely example of spangles, wouldn't you say? Jan 16, 2009

  • vanishedone I don't really recommend trying to reduce image size; squashed images can look awful without anti-aliasing to remove jagged lines, and Firefox seems to have trouble scrolling pages that contain them. Jan 16, 2009

  • reesetee No problem here--I managed to see the photo, and sometimes Firefox at my office gets wonky. :-) Jan 16, 2009

  • chained_bear *struggles, with handbag and tiara, to compute what VO just said*

    Okay, then. Thanks for the tip on closing the image. I don't intend to use images much (if at all) here as I find them distracting myself—though occasionally a well-placed one can inspire further discussion.

    If there is a way to size them so that they're smaller than this behemoth, I'd appreciate learning how to do it. Jan 16, 2009

  • vanishedone The file https://www.tannershaven.com/images/Purse099 gives me declares itself as an application/octet-stream, which an image file shouldn't; I'm guessing the messed-up MIME type is that site's problem.

    Would it bother people if I pointed out that Wordie declares itself to be XHTML, and therefore images are technically supposed to have a closing / as in <img="image location" alt="alt text (also technically required by the spec)" />, even if they work without? (Don't bother changing it; the page wouldn't validate anyway.) Jan 16, 2009

  • rolig Yep, now it works! Bearutiful! As far as the technical questions about https, etc., I'm hardly the right person to ask. Jan 16, 2009

  • chained_bear *blushes*

    I think we'll have to take up the arrow issue with John. Let me try again by editing my comment...

    Did that work? Is the image too huge? How do I fix it? If I borked the page, I'll take it down.

    I did notice that the image URL starts with HTTPS, rolig. Could that have something to do with it? Jan 15, 2009

  • rolig The problem could be my system, C_b. Your second handbag link ("here's") worked, and it had a little arrow, but the other one ("here it is again"), sans arrow, just took me to the same gibberish.

    But the handbag I could see is a beauty, with all the colors of the Bearish rainbow! Jan 15, 2009

  • chained_bear Eeew! Really?! Gosh, I don't want anyone to download stuff like that. Sorry about that. Try the second link (the one in the response comment to rolig).

    If someone wants to sneakily, privately tell me how to post an image directly on this page, I'll try that instead. Jan 15, 2009

  • reesetee I had some trouble w/ that link too, c_b. It opened eventually, but first it made me save a file to my hard drive.

    But what a lovely spangled purse. :-) Jan 15, 2009

  • chained_bear That's very odd, rolig. It works for me--I always test my links. For good measure, here it is again.

    And here's a similar one.

    However, I take issue with the assumption that the link doesn't work because the little arrow doesn't appear next to it. I almost never get the little arrow appearing next to my links, and (like I said) I test them and they work. Maybe it's a bug...? Jan 15, 2009

  • rolig I did, C_b, and what I get is:
    ÿØÿàJFIFyyÿá=-ExifII*þ!6>(2Fi‡b¤¤¤¤Z¤&¤¤¤ ¤
    ¤ ¤ðEASTMAN KODAK COMPANYKODAK DX4530 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA8/ 8/ 2007:10:19 01:01:54š‚ˆ�?‚�?"ˆƒ�?�?0220�?˜�?¬‘’
    À’È’
    �?’Ø’Š–’Œ˜ ’�?—
    ’à†’šŒ› 0100 kr € C¢è¢°ª£¸¬«£¹®­$""@`ff2007:10:18 19:28:262007:10:18 19:28:26(@€ JR(ZË9HHÿØÿÛ„ 

    "These" doesn't have an arrow next to it like links to other webpages usually do. Surely that means something.

    *pouts* Jan 15, 2009

  • chained_bear psst... rolig, click on "These"! :) Jan 15, 2009

  • rolig Ms. Bear, did you intend to link a picture of your handbags to your last comment? I, for one, would love to see your spangled handbags. Jan 15, 2009

  • chained_bear Indeed, rolig, you guessed aright. These are a few of my favorite handbags. (The colors bring out the highlights in my fur.)



    And then, of course, there's my dress tiara, which you may agree is mighty spangled.

    (My hunting tiara is a little more sedate.)

    Reesetee, didn't the "hot-glue gun" part tip you off? Jan 15, 2009

  • hernesheir cf. water-spangles Jan 15, 2009

  • reesetee A spangled bear! How snazzy!

    P.S. C_b, I first read your comment as "I spangled some birders the other day," and I thought, "Wow. Wouldn't that scare away the birds?"

    Except crows, maybe. Jan 14, 2009

  • whichbe I love freedom. Freedom from spangles. Jan 14, 2009

  • rolig I always suspected you were a spangler, C-b. Jan 14, 2009

  • chained_bear I spangled some binders the other day, with a hot-glue gun, some plastic eyeballs, and pompoms. Someone used the word "bedazzle" to describe my action, but I suspect they were using the trade name (naughty...) rather than a standard, if elderly, verb.

    So yes, I spangled them. Jan 14, 2009

  • yarb pleth, I've never seen it except as rolig mentions. It would be cool to describe something as e.g. "spangling in the sunlight", though. Jan 14, 2009

  • rolig Pleth, in the phrase "star-spangled banner", "spangled" is a form (participle) of the verb "to spangle". But of course you know that. One could argue that this represents a use of the verb. Jan 14, 2009

  • reesetee Now that you mention it, I'm all for spangling it up and reviving it. Jan 14, 2009

  • plethora Well, stars and banners were my second thought.

    Also, WeirdNet has odd priorites - has anyone here ever used the verb "to spangle"? Jan 14, 2009

  • rolig My first association with this word is the National Anthem of the United States of America (I'm a Baltimore boy, after all), hence my question to Whichbe: Why do you hate freedom? Jan 13, 2009

  • plethora It's a very... mardi gras word. Brings to mind tight-fitting costumes, drag queens, glitter and sequins.

    I kind of like it. Jan 13, 2009

  • rolig Whichbe, why do you hate freedom? Jan 13, 2009

  • whichbe This word strikes me as totally absurd. Jan 13, 2009

  • yarb ...his vivid aspect, when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue sea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all spangled with golden gleamings.

    - Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 41 Jul 24, 2008

  • yarb And at any moment, of course, a turn of the kaleidoscope might suddenly toss a bright spangle into the grey pattern of one's days.

    - Edith Wharton, The Reef Jun 18, 2008

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‘spangle’ has been looked up 2188 times, loved by 5 people, added to 46 lists, commented on 30 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.