[f. SPARK sb.2]
† 1. intr. With it. To play the spark or gallant; to make a display, show off. Obs.
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, I. i. That she may spark it in a Box, And do honour to her profession.
1688. Shadwell, Sqr. Alsatia, I. i. Enough [money] to set thee up to spark it in thy brother’s face.
1709. Mrs. Manley, Secret Mem., I. 264. To purchase … a Back-place in their Coach, that they may spark it in the Prado.
2. U.S. To engage in courtship; to play the suitor, wooer or beau. Also with it.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 276. Whenever he went a sparking amongst the rosy country girls of the neighbouring farms.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 322 (with quots.).
1862. Lowell, Biglow P., Ser. II. Courtin’, ix. He ’d sparked it with full twenty gals.
1884. Sophie Swett, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 410/2. He used to go sparkin’ round among the girls.
b. trans. To make love or pay attentions to; to court.
1888. Gunter, Mr. Potter, xiv. 176. I’ve heard as how young Errol is a sparking your daughter.
1893. J. Ralph, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 372/2. The parents … sit in the room while he ‘sparks’ the ravisher of his heart.
