Definitions

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

  • noun An elegantly dressed, highly self-conscious young man.
  • noun A male suitor; a beau.
  • intransitive verb To court or woo.
  • intransitive verb To court a woman or women.
  • noun An incandescent particle, especially.
  • noun One thrown off from a burning substance.
  • noun One resulting from friction.
  • noun One remaining in an otherwise extinguished fire; an ember.
  • noun A glistening particle, as of metal.
  • noun A flash of light, especially a flash produced by electric discharge.
  • noun A short pulse or flow of electric current.
  • noun A trace or suggestion, as.
  • noun A quality or feeling with latent potential; a seed or germ.
  • noun A vital, animating, or activating factor.
  • noun Informal A radio operator aboard a ship.
  • noun The luminous phenomenon resulting from a disruptive discharge through an insulating material.
  • noun The discharge itself.
  • intransitive verb To give off sparks.
  • intransitive verb To operate correctly. Used of the ignition system of an internal-combustion engine.
  • intransitive verb To set in motion; activate.
  • intransitive verb To rouse to action; spur.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To play the spark or gallant; court.
  • To pay attention to, especially with a view to marriage; court; play the gallant to, in a general sense: as, he is parking Miss Doe; to spark a girl home.
  • To emit sparks, as of fire or electricity; sparkle or scintillate.
  • In electricity, to produce sparks at points where the continuity of the circuit is interrupted.
  • To affect by sparks, as of electricity; act upon by the emission or transmission of sparks.
  • To splash with dirt.
  • noun A person of a gay or sprightly character; a gay, lively, showy man (or, rarely, in former use, woman); a “blade” or roysterer.
  • noun A lover; a gallant; a beau.
  • noun A particle of ignited substance emitted from a body in combustion; a fiery particle thrown off by burning wood, iron, powder, or other substance.
  • noun Hence A scintillating or flying emanation, literally or figuratively; anything resembling a spark of fire: as, sparks from a gem; a spark of wit.
  • noun A small diamond used with many others to form a setting or frame, as to a cameo or a miniature painting; also, a distinct crystal of diamond with the natural curved edges, suitable for glaziers' use.
  • noun A separate bit or particle of fire or burning matter in an otherwise inert body or mass; hence, a bit of anything, material or immaterial, comparable to this in its nuclear character or possible extension of activity.

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

  • noun A small particle of fire or ignited substance which is emitted by a body in combustion.
  • noun A small, shining body, or transient light; a sparkle.
  • noun That which, like a spark, may be kindled into a flame, or into action; a feeble germ; an elementary principle.
  • noun [U.S.] a contrivance to prevent the escape of sparks while it allows the passage of gas, -- chiefly used in the smokestack of a wood-burning locomotive. Called also spark consumer.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To sparkle.
  • intransitive verb (Elec.) To produce, or give off, sparks, as a dynamo at the commutator when revolving under the collecting brushes.
  • intransitive verb To play the spark, beau, or lover.
  • noun A brisk, showy, gay man.
  • noun A lover; a gallant; a beau.

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

  • noun A gallant, a foppish young man.
  • noun A beau, lover.
  • verb To woo, court.
  • noun A small particle of glowing matter, either molten or on fire.
  • noun A short or small burst of electrical discharge.
  • noun figuratively A small amount of something, such as an idea, that has the potential to become something greater, just as a spark can start a fire.

Etymologies

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

[Perhaps of Scandinavian origin or from spark.]

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

[Middle English sparke, from Old English spearca. V., from Middle English sparken, from Old English spearcian.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

probably Scandinavian, akin to Old Norse sparkr 'sprightly'

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English sparke, sperke, from Old English spearca, from Proto-Germanic *sparkōn (cf. Dutch sprank, Middle Low German sparke), from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g- 'to strew, sprinkle' (compare Breton erc'h ‘snow’, Latin spargere ‘to scatter, spread’, sparsus ‘scattered’, Lithuanian sprógti ‘to germinate’, Ancient Greek spargân ‘to swell’, Avestan frasparega ‘branch, twig’, Sanskrit Parjanva ‘rain, rain god’).

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Examples

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  • A lighting technician or Electrician.

    August 7, 2008

  • See sparkie.

    August 7, 2008

  • "To pay attention to, especially with a view to marriage; court; play the gallant to, in a general sense: as, he is parking Miss Doe; to spark a girl home."

    -- from the Century

    March 23, 2014