sconce /ˈskɑn(t)s/
突出的燭臺,頭,頭蓋(vt.)遮蔽
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.]
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Sconce n.
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.
6. 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.
10. A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov. Eng.]
sconce
n 1: a candlestick with a flat side to be hung on the wall
2: a forbidding stronghold [syn: redoubt]