Sconce

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /skÉ’ns/

From French esconce ("lantern"), from Latin absconsus ("hidden"), perfect passive participle of abscondō ("hide").

Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

ensconce The Lexiteria & alphaDictionary

Cognate with abscond.

Full definition of sconce

Noun

1. A light fixture.
• Evelyntapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them
• DrydenGolden sconces hang not on the walls.
2. A head or a skull.
• Shakespeareto knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel
3. A poll tax; a mulct or fine.
4. A piece of armour for the head; headpiece; helmet.
• ShakespeareI must get a sconce for my head.

Verb

1. (obsolete) to impose a fine, a forfeit, or a mulct.

From Middle Dutch schans, cognate with German Schanze.

Alternative forms

• skonce

Noun

1. A type of small fort or other fortification, especially as built to defend a pass or ford.
• MiltonNo sconce or fortress of his raising was ever known either to have been forced, or yielded up, or quitted.
2. (obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
• Beaumont and Fletcherone that ... must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches
3. The circular tube, with a brim, in a candlestick, into which the candle is inserted.
4. (architecture) A squinch.
5. A fragment of a floe of ice.
6. A fixed seat or shelf.

Derived terms

• ensconce

Verb

1. (obsolete) to shut within a sconce; to imprison.