coruscate
/ˈkɒrəskeɪt
/verb [no object] literary
(Of light) flash or sparkle: the light was coruscating through the walls...
- Finally, as the blazing star appeared high over the island, the glow coruscated into incredible brilliance and began the nightly display.
- Dark lightning coruscated around James' hands as the point of light rose up into the air.
- A diamond coruscates because it has the capacity for ‘total internal reflection’, meaning that it is able to completely reflect all the light that falls upon it from a particular direction.
Derivatives
coruscation
- What part of her father may have been human in form was entirely obscured by the coruscations of white light which, whether by accident or design, accompanied him.
- A coruscation of faces recalls the Malthusian horrors of the early 20 th-century Belgian artist James Ensor.
- The pitchy pigment's obscuring weight seems to bank rather than smother the glimmering coruscations.
Origin
Early 18th century: from Latin coruscat- 'glittered', from the verb coruscare.