sparks

Pluralsparks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of spark.

   Tiny sparks scattered into the night as the welder worked the seam.

   Stray sparks from the chimney landed on the dry roof shingles.

   Note

   A regular plural whose spelling does triple duty. The same letters give the verb form in "the switch sparks" and the nickname for a ship's radio operator. As a plural noun it takes a plural verb: sparks fly, sparks were falling. It carries every meaning of spark, from glowing particles and brief electrical discharges to the figurative small beginnings of an idea or an affection.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of spark.

   The faulty switch sparks whenever someone flips it after dark.

   A single offhand remark often sparks a heated debate among the staff.

   Note

   The -s here marks agreement, not number. It follows he, she, it or a singular noun, while the plural noun uses the same ending to mean more than one. The form covers transitive uses, where a remark sparks a debate or a match sparks a fire, and the intransitive one, where a faulty switch simply sparks. The archaic sense of courting, of acting the gallant, belongs to older writing.

3. 3
   nouncolloquial

   An electrician, and specifically the radio operator aboard a merchant marine vessel.

   Below decks, sparks tapped out a steady stream of Morse to the harbor station.

   The captain trusted sparks to keep the wireless running through the worst of the storm.

   Similarradioman

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