[f. SPARKLE v.1 + -ER.]
1. One who sparkles or shines in respect of beauty or accomplishments; esp. a vivacious, witty, or pretty young woman.
1713. Addison, Guardian, No. 120, ¶ 1. What wou’d you say, should you see the Sparkler … thumping the Table with a Dice-Box?
1772. Town & Country Mag., 67/2. He called her his sparkler, and commended her person and accomplishments.
1800. Weems, Life Washington (1810), i. 6. To wheeze and cough by themselves, and not depress the … spirits of the young sparklers.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, vi. (1856), 58. ‘No doubt,’ says Bill, ‘she’s what I call a exact sparkler!’
2. A bright or sparkling eye. Chiefly pl. Latterly colloq. or slang.
1746. Hervey, Medit. (1818), 56. The eye that outshone the diamond’s brilliancy,… where is it? Where shall we find the rolling sparkler?
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, II. ii. One glance of those roguish sparklers would fix me again.
1804. Sporting Mag., XXIII. 284. A very beautiful woman, with a pair of bright sparklers.
1854. Ainsworth, Flitch of Bacon, II. iii. 135. As to her eyes, they shine, like—I don’t know what…; though they don’t come up to the lustre of Bab’s sparklers.
3. A sparkling gem; a diamond.
1822. Byron, Werner, III. i. 328. Oh, thou sweet sparkler! Thou more than stone of the philosopher!
1860. All Year Round, No. 46. 459. Amber mouthpieces filleted with ‘sparklers,’ as the English cracksman affectionately calls diamonds.
1893. McCarthy, Red Diamonds, I. ii. 47. Pretty sparklers, ain’t they?
4. An insect having a shining or sparkling appearance; spec. any beetle of the family Cicindelidæ; a tiger-beetle.
1860. Piesse, Lab. Chem. Wonders, 2. The Cicindela, or Sparkler.
c. 1860. J. Carlin, To Fire-flies, i. in Harper’s Mag. (1884), March, 590/1. Awake, ye sparklers, bright and gay.
5. A sparkling wine.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 575. In France the manufacturers of sparkling wine … have to increase its effervescence by mixing it with the wine grown in Champagne, which is a natural sparkler.
6. Something that shines or sparkles; a sparkling firework.
1879. Warren, Astron., vi. 113. [Mercury] keeps so near the sun that very few people have ever seen the brilliant sparkler.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 3 Nov., 3/2. The most popular and novel among these [fireworks] are the electric sparkler [etc.].
