rush candle
- noun
- Archaic
:
vela de juncos
- The rush candle flickered in the dark room.
Examples
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Before modern lighting, the humble rush candle was commonly used in rural homes.
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They used a rush candle to illuminate the small cottage at night.
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In the dim light of a rush candle, she quietly read her letter by the fire.
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She lit a rush candle during the power outage.
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During the festival, each villager lit a rush candle made from local reeds to illuminate the evening.
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The rush candle flickered softly as it provided light in the dark room.
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She carefully crafted a rush candle, ensuring the wick was well coated in tallow.
Synonyms
451
1.0
A stick or block of wax with a wick that you burn for light
3
6.3
A long thin candle used for light
1
7.4
A candle made by putting a wick into wax many times
A thin candle made from the dried stem of a water plant soaked in animal fat for light
A stick of wax with a wick that gives light
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning ('a candle made with a stem of rush as the wick') is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'rush' (a marsh plant) with 'candle' (a wax light), following the common noun+noun pattern that denotes material or type. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common naming pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Rush candle comes from the plant rush being used as the candle's 'wick'. People dried a rush stem and dipped it in fat so it would burn, so the name simply describes a poor but useful candle for light.