scintillate

verb

1. (intransitive)To give off sparks; to shine as if emanating sparks; to twinkle or glow.

   “In fact, the whole place scintillated. Madame scintillated with combs and finery and jewellery behind the counter, mirrors innumerable scintillated behind Madame, whilst the ragtime scintillated from (as I discovered) a pianola […]”

   “The streets of Rangoon, wallowing in sun, flashed and scintillated with strolling crowds, skirted in their best silk longyis.”

   “There it no other word to describe it; the book scintillates. It moves with a rush and a sweep that carry the reader along like a chip on the current of the Niagara rapids.”

   “The interior of the prison flashed white with suddenly-turned faces. The gloom scintillated, as it were, with rapidly-moving hands.”

2. Of a star or other celestial body: to vary rapidly in brightness; to twinkle.

   “Do the stars scintillate at all altitudes? Is there any altitude at which it ceases to manifest itself? At Morges the stars in general scintillate at all altitudes, although feebly near the zenith; but on the nights when the scintillation is very faint, it ceases completely at a zenith distance of 45°.”

3. Especially of a phosphor: to emit a flash of light upon absorbing ionizing radiation.
4. (intransitive)To dazzle or to impress.
5. (archaic, transitive)To throw off like sparks.

   “As a boy young Arabin took up the cudgels on the side of the Tractarians, and at Oxford he sat for a while at the feet of the great [John Henry] Newman. To this cause he lent all his faculties. For it he concocted verses, for it he made speeches, for it he scintillated the brightest sparks of his quiet wit.”

   “[T]he adrenaline in my veins scintillated the surface of my skin sending chills all over my body.”

   “It [the wind] rushed through the resonant stone horns and across the vibrating vines, washed though the swaying branches and leaves of the trees and scintillated the expectant flowers, all of which began to pulsate together in a tuneful but almost discordant way until the cacophonous prelude was overcome with high joyful sounds.”