Adjacent Words

Sconce definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SCONCE, n.
1. A fort or bulwark; a work for defense. Obs.
2. A hanging or projecting candlestick, generally with a mirror to reflect the light.
Golden sconces hang upon the walls.
3. The circular tube with a brim in a candlestick, into which the candle is inserted, that is, the support, the holder of the candle; and from this sense the candlestick, in the preceding definition, has its name.
4. A fixed seat or shelf. [Local.]
SCONCE, n.
1. Sense; judgment; discretion or understanding. This sense has been in vulgar use in New England within my memory.
2. The head; a low word.
3. A mulet or fine.
SCONCE, v.t. To mulet; to fine. [A low word and not in use.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a shelter or screen providing protection from enemy fire or from the weather
2: a small fort or earthwork defending a ford, pass, or castle gate
3: a candle or flaming torch secured in a sconce
4: a decorative wall bracket for holding candles or other sources of light

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French sconce, *esconse screened candle or lantern, from escunser to hide, obscure, from Old French escons, past participle of escondre to hide, from Vulgar Latin *excondere, alteration of Latin abscondere — more at abscond Date: 15th century 1. a bracket candlestick or group of candlesticks; also an electric light fixture patterned on a candle sconce 2. head, skull II. noun Etymology: Dutch schans, from German Schanze Date: 1571 a detached defensive work

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. 1 a flat candlestick with a handle. 2 a bracket candlestick to hang on a wall. Etymology: ME f. OF esconse lantern or med.L sconsa f. L absconsa fem. past part. of abscondere hide: see ABSCOND 2. n. 1 a small fort or earthwork usu. defending a ford, pass, etc. 2 archaic a shelter or screen. Etymology: Du. schans brushwood f. MHG schanze

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.] Immure him, sconce him, barricade him in 't. --Marston. 2. To mulct; to fine. [Obs.] --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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. No sconce or fortress of his raising was ever known either to have been forced, or yielded up, or quitted. --Milton. 2. A hut for protection and shelter; a stall. One that . . . must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches. --Beau. & Fl. 3. A piece of armor for the head; headpiece; helmet. I must get a sconce for my head. --Shak. 4. Fig.: The head; the skull; also, brains; sense; discretion. [Colloq.] To knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel. --Shak. 5. A poll tax; a mulct or fine. --Johnson. 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. Tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-colored, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them. --Evelyn. Golden sconces hang not on the walls. --Dryden. 7. Hence, the circular tube, with a brim, in a candlestick, into which the candle is inserted. 8. (Arch.) A squinch. 9. A fragment of a floe of ice. --Kane. 10. [Perhaps a different word.] A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov. Eng.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Squinch Squinch, 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sconces) A sconce is a decorated object that holds candles or an electric light, and that is attached to the wall of a room. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Cover, shelter, protection. 2. Candle-holder, candelabrum. 3. Bulwark, fort, defence, block-house, fortification. 4. Helmet, head-piece. 5. Skull, head. 6. Brains, sense, judgment, discretion. 7. Mulct, fine, poll-tax. 8. Top, head. 9. Seat, shelf.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

The head, probably as being the fort and citadel of a man: from SCONCE, an old name for a fort, derived from a Dutch word of the same signification; To build a sconce: a military term for bilking one's quarters. To sconce or skonce; to impose a fine. ACADEMICAL PHRASE.

Moby Thesaurus

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