Sconce

Part of speech: noun (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. Johnson.

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. A squinch.

9. A fragment of a floe of ice. Kane.

10. A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov. Eng.]

Part of speech: verb (v.)

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.