cresset

Meanings

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

1. A surname.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English cresset, from Old French crasset, cresset (“sort of lamp or torch”); perhaps of Old Dutch or Old High German origin, and akin to English cruse and/or French creuset (“crucible”), the latter being from Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin *croceolus.