English

Noun

rushlight ‎(plural rushlights)

1. a type of inexpensive candle, historically used, formed by soaking the dried pith of the rush plant in fat or grease, which emits light for a relatively short period of time.
   • 1847-48, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter VII

     After supper Sir Pitt Crawley began to smoke his pipe; and when it became quite dark, he lighted the rushlight in the tin candlestick, and producing from an interminable pocket a huge mass of papers, began reading them, and putting them in order.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations:

     As I had asked for a night-light, the chamberlain had brought me in, before he left me, the good old constitutional rushlight of those virtuous days.

   • 1901, Evelyn Everett-Green, In the Wars of the Roses:

     The nights were almost at their longest now, and the cold was very great; but the watchers piled fresh logs upon the fire, and talked quietly to each other as they sat in the dancing glow--for the rushlight had long since gone out.