cresset

[ kres-it ]

noun
  1. a metal cup or basket often mounted on a pole or suspended from above, containing oil, pitch, a rope steeped in rosin, etc., burned as a light or beacon.

Origin of cresset

1
1325–75; Middle English <Anglo-French, Old French craisset, equivalent to crasgrease + -et-et

Words Nearby cresset

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cresset in a sentence

  • At one of the larger intersections, Albert stopped under a flaming cresset and looked at his arm.

    Insidekick | Jesse Franklin Bone
  • For a moment there was darkness, then a cresset on the wall flashed up, another and another, and all was light.

    God Wills It! | William Stearns Davis
  • His face was cruel and alert, and the light from the cresset played in red streaks upon his helmet.

    The Hill of Venus | Nathan Gallizier
  • Light yonder cresset from the embers on the hearth; advance it to his face!

    Wager of Battle | Henry William Herbert
  • cresset, a large kind of candlestick for holding a small fire or illuminant.

British Dictionary definitions for cresset

cresset

/ (ˈkrɛsɪt) /


noun
  1. history a metal basket mounted on a pole in which oil or pitch was burned for illumination

Origin of cresset

1
C14: from Old French craisset, from craisse grease

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012