candle

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Definitions (44)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A solid, usually cylindrical mass of tallow, wax, or other fatty substance with an axially embedded wick that is burned to provide light.
  2. noun Something resembling this object in shape or use.
  3. noun Physics An obsolete unit of luminous intensity, originally defined in terms of a wax candle with standard composition and equal to 1.02 candelas. Also called international candle.
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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • Towards the conclusion a simile of this kind arose and spread before my view: As wax when melted by the fire or the candle is then only capable of receiving the impression of the stamp put upon it, so also are our minds only capable of receiving impressions of divine good when our spirits are melted and contrited before the Lord. —  Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley
  • At first the blue tinge had been visible only when the candle was at roof level, but a few minutes later it appeared a foot below the roof, and Mack had to stop testing for fear of setting fire to it before the pit was evacuated. —  A Place Called Freedom
  • The last surface on which Harry spotted a candle was a bow-fronted chest of drawers on which there stood a large number of photographs. —  Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
  • Such is the yellow saunder, which by the inhabitants is called bois de chandel, or, in English, candle-wood, because it burns like a candle, and serves them with light while they fish by night. —  The Pirates of Panama or, The Buccaneers of America; a True Account of the Famous Adventures and Daring Deeds of Sir Henry Morgan and Other Notorious Freebooters of the Spanish Main
  • His mind sprang to the people themselves. —  Starfarers
 

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Candle has been looked up 273 times, favorited 0 times, listed 26 times, and commented on once.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English candel, from Old English and from Anglo-Norman candele, both from Latin candēla, from candēre, to shine; see kand- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English candel, candele, from Anglo-Saxon candel = French chandelle = Provencal Spanish candela = Portuguese candea = Italian candela = Walloon candel = Old Irish cainel, cainnel, Irish coinneal = Gaelic coinnell= Welsh canwyll = Old Bulgarian kanǔdilo, Bulgarian kundilo = Servian kandilo = Russian kandilo, kandelǐ = New Greek κανδήλα = Arabic qandīl (later Turkish qandīl, Spanish candil, a lamp), from Latin candela, a candle, from candere, be white, bright, shining: see candid. Hence (through F.) chandler, chandelier, chandry, etc.
 

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/ˈkændl/
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