rush-candle
[rush n.1]
A candle of feeble power made by dipping the pith of a rush in tallow or other grease; a rushlight.
| 1591 Nashe Pref. to Sidney's Astr. & Stella, Put out your rush candles, you Poets and Rymers. 1634 Milton Comus 338 A rush Candle from the wicker hole Of som clay habitation. 1677 A. Horneck Gt. Law Consid. vi. (1704) 321 What is all the light our eyes behold, but a rush-candle to him that is the father of lights? 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Candle, Rush Candles, used in divers parts of England, are made of the pith of a sort of rushes, peeled, or stripped of the skin, except in one side, and dipt in melted grease. 1816 A. C. Hutchison Pract. Obs. Surg. (1826) 165 There being only the usual light in the ward, a common rush-candle. 1895 ‘G. Mortimer’ Tales Western Moors 119 He pictured her knitting placidly by the light of a rush candle. |