English Dictionary

sconce

/skɒns/

noun

A type of small fort or other fortification, especially as built to defend a pass or ford. / (obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall. / (architecture) A squinch.

The soldiers took cover behind the sconce during the battle.

意味（1）

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.

意味（2）

(obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.

one that […] must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches

意味（3）

(architecture) A squinch.

意味（4）

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.

意味（5）

A fixed seat or shelf.