Meaning of cresset | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A surname.
2. A metal cage, basket or cup with fire in it, used for various purposes:
   historical
3. A metal cup, suspended from or attached to the top of a pole and filled with burning pitch etc., used as portable illumination.
   historical
4. A metal basket filled with burning material, used to attract fish when night fishing; a fire basket.
5. A small furnace or iron cage to hold fire for charring the inside of a cask, and making the staves flexible.

Equivalents

Examples

“Starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed / With naphtha and asphaltus.”

“As a cresset true that darts its length / Of beamy lustre from a tower of strength.”

“1805–1814, Dante Alighieri, Henry Francis Cary (translator), The Divine Comedy, "Inferno", Canto VIII We reach'd the lofty turret's base, our eyes / its height ascended, where we mark'd uphung / two cressets and another saw from far”

CEFR level