shimmer
/ˈʃɪmə
/verb [no object]
Shine with a soft, slightly wavering light: the sea shimmered in the sunlight (as adjective shimmering) shimmering candlelight...
- A giant flame shimmered brightly in the moonlight.
- Brown and beautiful, her eyes shimmered in the light of the house.
- His eyes shimmered in the low light and he yawned and curled his purple striped tail around his cat body.
Synonyms
glint, glisten, flicker, twinkle, sparkle, flash, scintillate, flare, glare, gleam, glow, glimmer, glitter, dance, blink, wink
rare coruscate, fulgurate
noun [in singular]
A soft, slightly wavering light: a pale shimmer of moonlight...
- I could see the excitement in Charlie's eyes as he saw the shimmer of light dancing on my Kitana blade.
- Her skin had taken on a translucent shimmer, skin even paler than before.
- Her hair was darker and had more auburn in it that is use to, and her eyes had a shimmer of pale green in them.
Synonyms
glint, glistening, flicker, twinkle, sparkle, flash, scintillation, flare, glare, gleam, glow, glimmer, lustre, glitter, dancing, blinking, winking
rare coruscation, fulguration
Derivatives
shimmeringly
- Although they have dented the charts more than a few times with a series of shimmeringly catchy singles, there's always been melancholy beneath the dancefloor sheen.
- His novel is evangelical in its defence of the shimmeringly implausible. ‘If you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for?’
- The limestone terrain was shimmeringly white.
shimmery
- He's really pretty with lots of pinkish-red coloring shot through with shimmery blue.
- When I drove close to the sighting of the edifice, I noticed shimmery lights shining from its many windows.
- I wanted to be the one wearing lip gloss and shimmery face glitter, and a revealing top and a very tight pair of jeans.
Origin
Late Old English scymrian, of Germanic origin; related to German schimmern, also to shine. The noun dates from the early 19th century.