cresset - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

cres·set

Audio Help [kres-it] Pronunciation Key

–noun

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: 1325–75; ME < AF, OF craisset, equiv. to cras grease + -et -et

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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cresset

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

cres·set Audio Help (krěs'ĭt) Pronunciation Key
n. A metal cup, often suspended on a pole, containing burning oil or pitch and used as a torch.

[Middle English, from Old French, alteration of croisuel, probably from Vulgar Latin *croceolus, small lamp.]

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Cresset

Cres"set\ (kr?s"s?t), n. [OF. crasset, cresset, sort of lamp or torch; perh. of Dutch or German origin, and akin to E. cruse, F. creuset crucible, E. crucible.]

1. An open frame or basket of iron, filled with combustible material, to be burned as a beacon; an open lamp or firrepan carried on a pole in nocturnal processions.

Starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed With naphtha and asphaltus. --Milton.

As a cresset true that darts its length Of beamy luster from a tower of strength. --Wordsworth.

2. (Coopering) A small furnace or iron cage to hold fire for charring the inside of a cask, and making the staves flexible. --Knight.

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