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sconce

noun
/skɒns/UK/skɑns/US

Etymology

From Middle English sconce, sconse (“candlestick or lantern (with screen)”), from Old French esconse (“lantern”), from Latin absconsus (“hidden”), perfect passive participle of abscondō (“hide”). Cognate with abscond.

  1. derived from absconsus
  2. derived from esconse
  3. inherited from sconce

Definitions

  1. A fixture for a light, which holds it and provides a screen against wind or against a…

    A fixture for a light, which holds it and provides a screen against wind or against a naked flame or lightbulb.

    • […]tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them.
    • Golden sconces hang not on the walls.
    • There wasn't a room that had not been clad, picture-railed, dadoed, panelled, stained, gilded, bordered and generally made over to within an inch of its life - can I interest anyone in a gold cherubic sconce?

  2. A head or a skull.

    • Novv as I am a Chriſtian anſvver me, / In vvhat ſafe place you haue beſtovv'd my monie; / Or I ſhall breake that merrie ſconce of yours / That ſtands on tricks, vvhen I am vndiſpos'd: / VVhere is the thouſand Markes thou hadſt of me?
    • Why does he suffer this rude knave now, to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery?
    • Long time this sconce a helmet wore, / But sickness smites the conscience sore; / He broke his sword, and hither bore / His gear and plunder, / Took to the cowl,—then rav’d and swore / At his damn’d blunder!

  3. A poll tax

    A poll tax; a mulct or fine.

    • I'll gladly pay a sconce
  4. ›+ 9 more definitions

    1. An act of sconcing

      An act of sconcing; very similar to a fine at Cambridge University, though a sconce is the act of issuing a penalty rather than the penalty itself.

      • .
      • The table opposite started singing "shit sconce, shit scone^([sic]), shit sconce, shit sconce" […]

    2. To impose a fine, a forfeit, or a mulct.

      • The Rector sconced him in the buttery-book, but Webberly “wiped it off, with irreverent and unbeseeming language.” For this, he had to apologise, and go without his commons for three months.

    3. During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to announce some (usually outrageous) deed…

      During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to announce some (usually outrageous) deed such that anyone who has done it must drink; similar to I have never; commonly associated with crewdates; very similar to fining at Cambridge University.

      • I sconce anyone who has ever…

    4. A type of small fort or other fortification, especially as built to defend a pass or ford.

      • No sconce or fortress of his raising was ever known either to have been forced, or yielded up, or quitted.

    5. A hut for protection and shelter

      A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.

      • one that […] must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches

    6. A squinch.

    7. A fragment of a floe of ice.

    8. A fixed seat or shelf.

    9. To shut within a sconce

      To shut within a sconce; to imprison.

The neighborhood

Derived

ensconce

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for sconce. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA