Sconce

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sconce \Sconce\, n. [D. schans, OD. schantse, perhaps from OF.
     esconse a hiding place, akin to esconser to hide, L.
     absconsus, p. p. of abscondere. See {Abscond}, and cf.
     {Ensconce}, {Sconce} a candlestick.]
     1. A fortification, or work for defense; a fort.
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              No sconce or fortress of his raising was ever known
              either to have been forced, or yielded up, or
              quitted.                              --Milton.
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     2. A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
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              One that . . . must raise a sconce by the highway
              and sell switches.                    --Beau. & Fl.
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     3. A piece of armor for the head; headpiece; helmet.
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              I must get a sconce for my head.      --Shak.
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     4. Fig.: The head; the skull; also, brains; sense;
        discretion. [Colloq.]
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              To knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel.
                                                    --Shak.
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     5. A poll tax; a mulct or fine. --Johnson.
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     6. [OF. esconse a dark lantern, properly, a hiding place. See
        Etymol. above.] A protection for a light; a lantern or
        cased support for a candle; hence, a fixed hanging or
        projecting candlestick.
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              Tapers put into lanterns or sconces of
              several-colored, oiled paper, that the wind might
              not annoy them.                       --Evelyn.
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              Golden sconces hang not on the walls. --Dryden.
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     7. Hence, the circular tube, with a brim, in a candlestick,
        into which the candle is inserted.
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     8. (Arch.) A squinch.
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     9. A fragment of a floe of ice. --Kane.
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     10. [Perhaps a different word.] A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov.
         Eng.]
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sconce \Sconce\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sconced}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Sconcing}.]
     1. To shut up in a sconce; to imprison; to insconce. [Obs.]
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              Immure him, sconce him, barricade him in 't.
                                                    --Marston.
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     2. To mulct; to fine. [Obs.] --Milton.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Squinch \Squinch\ (skw[i^]nch), n. [Corrupted fr. sconce.]
     (Arch.)
     A small arch thrown across the corner of a square room to
     support a superimposed mass, as where an octagonal spire or
     drum rests upon a square tower; -- called also {sconce}, and
     {sconcheon}.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sconce
       n 1: a candlestick with a flat side to be hung on the wall
       2: a forbidding stronghold [syn: {redoubt}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  103 Moby Thesaurus words for "sconce":
     abatis, advanced work, amercement, balistraria, bank, banquette,
     barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barricade, barrier, bartizan,
     bastion, battlement, bean, belfry, bracket, brain, breastwork,
     brow, bulwark, candelabrum, candlestand, candlestick, casemate,
     chandelier, cheval-de-frise, chump, circumvallation, conk,
     contravallation, counterscarp, crown, curtain, damages,
     demibastion, dike, distraint, distress, dome, drawbridge,
     earthwork, encephalon, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, escarpment,
     escheat, escheatment, fence, fieldwork, fine, forfeit, forfeiture,
     fortalice, fortification, gas fixture, girandole, glacis,
     gray matter, head, headpiece, lamp holder, lampstand,
     light fixture, light socket, loophole, lunette, machicolation,
     mantelet, merlon, mound, mulct, noddle, noggin, noodle,
     organ of thought, outwork, palisade, parados, parapet, pate, poll,
     portcullis, postern gate, rampart, ravelin, redan, redoubt, ridge,
     sally port, scarp, seat of thought, sensation, sensorium, sensory,
     stockade, tenaille, torch holder, torch staff, vallation, vallum,
     wall bracket, work