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''sconce'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260919121947-00-⌔

sconce - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

sconce (plural sconces)

  • 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.1
    • ✤ Golden sconces hang not on the walls.2
    • ✤ 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?3
    • A candlestick (holder for a candle, especially a circular tube, with a brim, into which a candle is inserted), either with a handle for carrying, or with a bracket for attaching to a wall.
      • ✤ Taking the candle […] she stood with the little flat brass sconce in her hand.4
      • ✤ This strange scene was lightd up by candles in high and havy brass sconces.5
      • ✤ Also the candles flickering in the blood-red sconces are black and the body on the crucifix is that of a full-breasted woman.6

Noun

sconce (plural sconces)

  • 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?7
    • ✤ 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?8
    • ✤ 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!9
    • ✤ […] roll the rider and his horse in the dust, or endeavour to drive their lance through the bars of the visor into the bull’s eye of their friend’s sconce, […]10
    • ✤ […]; an old blue jacket, that at one time had been a coat, looped over a red plush “singlet” of perhaps twenty or even forty years’ wear: his almost hairless sconce bared to the sun, from which it had received an imperishable coating of tan, he was an object that few would pass without hailing with observations, […] he wiped his shining sconce […] and raised his visor […]11
  • A poll tax; a mulct or fine.
    • ✤ *I’ll gladly pay a sconce *12
  • (Oxford University slang) 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).
    • ✤ Synonym: sconcing
    • ✤ Near-synonym: (Cambridge University slang) fine
    • ✤ The table opposite started singing “shit sconce, shit scone, shit sconce, shit sconce” […]13

Verb

sconce (third-person singular simple present sconces, present participle sconcing, simple past and past participle sconced)

  • (obsolete) 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.14
  • (Oxford University slang) 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).
    • ✤ Near-synonym: (Cambridge University slang) fine
    • ✤ I sconce anyone who has ever…

Noun

sconce (plural sconces)

  • 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.15
  • (obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
    • ✤ one that […] must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches16
  • (architecture) A squinch.
  • A fragment of a floe of ice.
    • ✤ Just then, a broad sconce -piece or low water-washed berg came driving up from the southward. The thought flashed upon me of one of our escapes in Melville Bay; and as the sconce moved rapidly close alongside us, McGary managed to plant an anchor on its slope and hold on to it by a whale-line.17
  • A fixed seat or shelf.

Verb

sconce (third-person singular simple present sconces, present participle sconcing, simple past and past participle sconced)

  • (obsolete) To shut within a sconce; to imprison.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /skɒns/
  • (General American) IPA: /skɑns/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ɒns

Etymology 1

🖼️ ➺ 🖼️ ➺

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”).1819 Cognate with abscond.

Etymology 2

Unclear. Perhaps a use of sconce (“light fixture”) or sconce (“fortification”), but seemingly older than the latter

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Middle Dutch schans, cognate with German Schanze.20

Printed 2026-09-19.

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Footnotes

  1. 1644 December 3 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 23 November 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC: ↩

  2. 1847, John Dryden, The Works of John Dryden in Verse and Prose, volume 1, Harper, The Beginning of the Second Book of Lucretius, page 183, line 28: ↩

  3. 2000 September 23, Michele Jenkinson, “West Country Living: My blind date with my new home”, in The Daily Telegraph ‎, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 March 2026: ↩

  4. 1858, Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, I. v. 55: ↩

  5. 1859, W. Collins, Queen of Hearts, published 1875, page 41: ↩

  6. 1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 96: ↩

  7. c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 87, column 1: ↩

  8. c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]: ↩

  9. 1818, John Keats, On Some Skulls in Beauly Abbey, near Inverness: ↩

  10. 1824, Galignani’s magazine and Paris monthly review, page 129: ↩

  11. 1867, Benjamin Brierley, Marlocks of Merriton, page 56: ↩

  12. 2011, Allan Mallinson, On His Majesty’s Service: ↩

  13. 2014 February 25, James Burns, “Fishing for Sconces”, in funnywomen.com ‎ (blog), archived from the original on 27 January 2022: ↩

  14. 1898, Rev. A. Clark, University of Oxford, College Histories: Lincoln, page 73: ↩

  15. 1670, John Milton, “”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […], →OCLC: ↩

  16. c. 1613–1616, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Scornful Lady, a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii: ↩

  17. 1856, Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorations: ↩

  18. Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition ↩

  19. ensconce The Lexiteria & alphaDictionary ↩

  20. ensconce The Lexiteria & alphaDictionary ↩

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