flambeau
(ˈflæmbəʊ)
Forms: 7 flambo, -oy, 8 -oe, 7– flambeau; pl. 7 flamboys, 7–8 -o(e)s, 7– flambeaus, -eaux.
[a. F. flambeau (= med.L. flambellum), f. flambe flame n.]
1. a. A torch; esp. one made of several thick wicks dipped in wax; a lighted torch.
| 1632 St. Trials, Ct. Coningsmark, etc. 11, I had a flambeau in my hand. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 133 Others fired their flambeauxes [sic]. 1697 C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 148 After the Collation was ended, Flamboys were brought in. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vii. xiv, Eyes as big..as two large flambeaux. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxv, An open grave, with four tall flambeaus..placed at the corners. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xvi, Many a private chair..preceded by running-footmen bearing flambeaux. |
b. A fire-signal or beacon.
| 1688 Wood Life (1894) III. 533 A great flambo on Combs his house..was seen as far as Newnham. |
2. transf. and fig. (Cf. torch, firebrand.)
| 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy. (1705) 132 Receiving some benediction from the flambo's of your Eyes. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams i. ccxxvi. (1693) 220 Our Laws of Correction against such dangerous Flambeaux. 1685 Gracian's Courtier's Orac. 54 The sayings of Alexander are the Flamboes of his deeds. 1936 R. Campbell Mithraic Emblems 25 Silent and vertical and dim The lunar flambeau of a prayer. 1939 A. E. Housman Coll. Poems 107 The chestnut casts his flambeaux. |
3. A large decorated candlestick.
| (In mod. Dicts.) |
4. South. U.S. ‘One of the set of kettles used in the open-kettle process of sugar-making, so called because the flames of the furnace strike it with most force’ (Cent. Dict.). [So in Fr.]
5. attrib. and Comb., as flambeau-bearer, flambeau-light.
| 1806 A. Duncan Nelson's Funeral 25 The men worked by candle and flambeau light. 1859 Dickens T. Two Cities ii. ix, Monsieur the Marquis, with his flambeau-bearer going on before, went up the staircase to a door in a corridor. |
Hence ˈflambeaued ppl. a., furnished with or lighted by flambeaux.
| 1852 Meanderings of Mem. I. 166 Flambeaued folly of the long procession. |