sconces
plural of sconce
sconces
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of sconce
Source: Wiktionary
Sconce, n. Etym: [D. schans, OD. schantse, perhaps from OF. esconse a hiding place, akin to esconser to hide, L. absconsus, p. p. of abscondere. See Abscond, and cf. Ensconce, Sconce a candlestick.]
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. Etym: [OF. esconse a dark lantern, properly, a hiding place. See Etymol. above.]
Definition: 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.)
Definition: A squinch.
9. A fragment of a floe of ice. Kane.
10. Etym: [Perhaps a different word.]
Definition: A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov. Eng.]
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.] Milton.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
3 June 2025
(noun) (law) someone who owns (is legal possessor of) a business; “he is the owner of a chain of restaurants”
The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.
