spangle

See also: Spangle

English[edit]

Gold spangles on a shoe (1)

From Middle English spangel (“a small piece of ornamental metal; a small ornament”); equivalent to spang +‎ -le.

spangle (plural spangles)

A small piece of sparkling metallic material sewn on to a garment as decoration; a sequin.
- 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
  And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.
Any small sparkling object.
- 1645, Edmund Waller, “Of and to the Queene”, lines 35--38:
  Thus, in a starry night, fond children cry
  For the rich spangles that adorn the sky,
  Which, though they shine for ever fixed there,
  With light and influence relieve us here.
The butterfly, Papilio demoleus, family Papilionidae, of Asia.
(obsolete, slang) Money. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

a small sparkling particle sewn on cloth as a decoration

spangle (third-person singular simple present spangles, present participle spangling, simple past and past participle spangled)

(intransitive) To sparkle, flash or coruscate.
(transitive) To fix spangles to; bespangle; to adorn with stars
- c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene v]:
  What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty?