Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Sconce \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.

Sconce \Sconce\, n. [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. [OF. esconse a dark lantern, properly, a hiding place. See
      Etymol. above.] 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.) A squinch.

   9. A fragment of a floe of ice. --Kane.

   10. [Perhaps a different word.] A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov.
       Eng.]

Source : WordNet®

sconce
     n 1: a candlestick with a flat side to be hung on the wall
     2: a forbidding stronghold [syn: {redoubt}]