A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2000 (DOST Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1633-1680
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Sconce, Scons(e, v. Also: skons. [e.m.E. sconse (1598); Sconce n.1 Cf. Du. (be)schansen.] a. tr. To protect by, or as by, erecting a defensive wall; to fortify. Also const. round. b. intr. To afford protection (against some danger). c. tr. To hide by, or as by, screening; to conceal. Also fig. Cf. F. esconser (Cotgrave). —a. 1633 Lithgow Welcome King Charles.
Would Leith, Inchkeith, and May were sconsd and block'd 1666-74 Fraser Polichron. 287.
Inverness … was sconced round with an earthen wall, a deep trensh, rampards, and pillasads [etc.] —b. 1680 Copy of a Letter by Mr. John Dickson, When He Was Prisoner in the Bass (1717) 5.
A rotten lump of fig-tree leaf distinction, which will not sconse against the walking of an angry God —c. 1663 Mackenzie Religious Stoic xiii (1685) 146.
As if a thicket of trees could have sconced him from his all-seeing Maker —fig. 1652 Urquhart Jewel 122.
With so close and secret a minde did he harbour in his heart, that new love, … remotely skonsing it from the knowledge of all men
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"Sconce v.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/sconce_v>
