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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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
sconce
n 1: a candlestick with a flat side to be hung on the wall
2: a forbidding stronghold [syn: redoubt]
WordNet (r) 2.0
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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