Word Direct Answers

What does "sconce" mean?

Sconce: A hut for protection and shelter; a stall. One that . . . must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches. Beau. & Fl.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A piece of armor for the head; headpiece; helmet. I must get a sconce for my head. Shak.
  2. 3.Fig.: The head; the skull; also, brains; sense; discretion. [Colloq.] To knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel. Shak.
  3. 4.A poll tax; a mulct or fine. Johnson.
  4. 5.Etym: [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.
  5. 6.Hence, the circular tube, with a brim, in a candlestick, into which the candle is inserted.
  6. 7.(Arch.) A squinch.
  7. 8.A fragment of a floe of ice. Kane.
  8. 9.Etym: [Perhaps a different word.] A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov. Eng.]
  9. 10.To shut up in a sconce; to imprison; to insconce. [Obs.] Immure him, sconce him, barricade him in 't. Marston.
  10. 11.To mulct; to fine. [Obs.] Milton.

Sources