spark2 (spark)

[Usually a ociated with spark1, sparkish, sparkling, etc., but perhaps a var. of sprack (cf. ME. sparklich, var. of sprack liche ), Robbin Hood upon him set With his cour agio us sparkes . True Tale of Robin Hood (Child's Ballads, V. 358). I will wed thee To my great widdowes daughter and sole heire, The louely sparke , the bright Laodice. Chapman , Widdowes Teares, i. ( Davies .) was, at his years, nearly as Sheridan , School for Scandal, i. 2. Their worthy father wild a spark . 2. A lover; a gallant; a beau. [Colloq.] Fly to your spark ; he'll tell you more of the matter. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, iii. spark2 (spärk), v . [ spark2 , n.] I. in trans. To play the spark or gallant; court. [Colloq.] A sure sign that his master was courting, or, as it is termed, sparking , within. Irving , Sketch-Book, p. 432. The boys that do a good deal of sparking and the girls that have a lot of beaux don't always get married first. E. Eggleston, The Graysons, xxxiii. 1. A fen II. trans . To pay attention to, especially with a view to marriage; court; play the gallant to, in a general sense: as, he is sparking Mi Doe; to spark a girl home. [Colloq.] spark-arrester (spärk'a-res tėr), n. der of wire netting.-2. A netting or cage of wire placed over the smoke-stack of a steam engine. In some arresters a deflector is placed in the stack, against which the sparks strike, and fall into a reservoir below. Also called spark - consumer . 3. A device for preventing injurious sparking in electrical apparatus at points where frequent interruptions of the circuit occur, as in telegraph-keys, relays, and similar instruments. It consists in some cases of a spark-coil or high-resistance connective acro the point of interruption, so that the circuit is never actually broken, but only greatly reduced. In others it is a condenser whose plates are connected each with one extremity of the broken circuit. In this case the energy of the current induced on breaking is expended in charging the condenser. Also sparker. spark-coil (spärk'koil), n. See spark - arres ter, 3. spark-condenser (spärk'kon-den"sér), n. In elect., an instrument having a gla cage in which a spark may be pa ed between the battery connections. It is used for burning metals or obtaining the spectra of gases, and is designed to isolate the atmosphere in which the experiment is conducted, so as to eliminate accidental disturbing causes, and also to enable the experiment to take place in an atmosphere of any required condensation or tenuity. spark-consumer (spärk'kon-sū"mėr), n. In a steam-engine, a spark-arrester.