Sconce /(?)/

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.

2. A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.

   One that . . . must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches.

3. A piece of armor for the head; headpiece; helmet.

   I must get a sconce for my head.

4. Fig.: The head; the skull; also, brains; sense; discretion. [Colloq.]

   To knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel.

5. A poll tax; a mulct or fine.
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.

   Golden sconces hang not on the walls.

7. Hence, the circular tube, with a brim, in a candlestick, into which the candle is inserted.
8. A squinch. (Arch.)
9. A fragment of a floe of ice.
10. A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov. Eng.]

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.

2. To mulct; to fine. [Obs.]