Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

cresset

American  
[kres-it] / ˈkrɛs ɪt /

noun

  1. a metal cup or basket often mounted on a pole or suspended from above, containing oil, pitch, a rope steeped in rosin, etc., burned as a light or beacon.

cresset British  
/ ˈkrɛsɪt /

noun

  1. history a metal basket mounted on a pole in which oil or pitch was burned for illumination

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of cresset

1325–75; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French craisset, equivalent to cras grease + -et -et

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.