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”). Cognate with abscond.
Meanings
A fixture for a light, which holds it and provides a screen against wind or against a naked flame or lightbulb.
Golden sconces hang not on the walls. 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:
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? 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 Mar 2026:
[…]tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them. 1644 December 2 (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:
A fixture for a light, which holds it and provides a screen against wind or against a naked flame or lightbulb. ▸ 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. 1858, Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, I. v. 55:
Also the candles flickering in the blood-red sconces are black and the body on the crucifix is that of a full-breasted woman. 1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 96:
This strange scene was lightd up by candles in high and havy brass sconces. 1859, W. Collins, Queen of Hearts, published 1875, page 41:
cs nástěnný svícen (light fixture on a wall) · bg аплик (light fixture on a wall) · fi lampetti (light fixture on a wall) · tr aplik (light fixture on a wall) · de Wandlampe (light fixture on a wall) · nl schemerlamp (light fixture on a wall) · uk бра (light fixture on a wall) · it candeliere da parete (light fixture on a wall) · ca aplic (light fixture on a wall) · el απλίκα (light fixture on a wall) · fr applique (light fixture on a wall) · cmn 灯台 (light fixture on a wall) · sv applick (light fixture on a wall) · hu fali lámpa (light fixture on a wall) · it candelabro (light fixture on a wall) · sv lampett (light fixture on a wall) · nl kandelaar (light fixture on a wall) · pl kinkiet (light fixture on a wall) · de Wandleuchte (light fixture on a wall) · ru бра (light fixture on a wall) · fr applique murale (light fixture on a wall) · cmn 烛台 (light fixture on a wall) · es aplique (light fixture on a wall) · pdt Wauntlatoarn (light fixture on a wall) · pt arandela (light fixture on a wall) · ga sconsa (light fixture on a wall) · cy goleuddal (light fixture on a wall) · de Wandleuchter (light fixture on a wall)
Unclear. Perhaps a use of sconce (“light fixture”) or sconce (“fortification”), but seemingly older than the latter
Meanings
A head or a skull.
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? 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]:
[…] 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, […] 1824, Galignani's magazine and Paris monthly review, page 129:
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! 1818, John Keats, On Some Skulls in Beauly Abbey, near Inverness:
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? 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:
[…]; 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 […] 1867, Benjamin Brierley, Marlocks of Merriton, page 56:
A poll tax; a mulct or fine.
I'll gladly pay a sconce 2011, Allan Mallinson, On His Majesty's Service:
(qualifier: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).
Near-synonym: (Cambridge University slang) fine
The table opposite started singing "shit sconce, shit scone^([sic]), shit sconce, shit sconce" […] 2014 February 25, James Burns, “Fishing for Sconces”, in funnywomen.com (blog), archived from the original on 27 Jan 2022:
Unclear. Perhaps a use of sconce (“light fixture”) or sconce (“fortification”), but seemingly older than the latter
Meanings
(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. 1898, Rev. A. Clark, University of Oxford, College Histories: Lincoln, page 73:
(qualifier: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).
Borrowed from Middle Dutch schans, cognate with German Schanze.
Meanings
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. 1670, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC:
(obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
one that […] must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches 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:
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. 1856, Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorations: