Sconce

skons, n. a bulwark: a small fort: a protective headpiece, hence the head, the skull, brains, wits: a covered stall: a fine: a seat in an old-fashioned open chimney-place, a chimney-seat: a fragment of an icefloe.— v.t. to fortify: to tax, to fine lightly, at Oxford and Cambridge, for some irregularity. [O. Fr. esconcer , to conceal—L. abscondĕre , absconsum .]