sb. A candle made of tallow.
1452. in Berks, Bucks & Oxon Archæol. Jrnl., Oct. (1903), 78. Item for j lb. & a hafe of talowcandell … j d. ob.
1496–7. Rec. St. Mary at Hill, 33. Item, iiij Candylstykes of laton with braunches for Talough candell.
1545. in Shropsh. Parish Documents (1903), 79. For talo candyllys.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., x. 74. We took a Tallow-Candle of such a size that eight of them make about a pound.
1710. Prior, in Examiner, 7 Sept., in Hist. of Own Time (1740), 319. Jacob’s Indulgence shall preserve Lady H——t from the Tallow-Candle.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ode to the French, 135, in Wks. (1802), VI. 114.
| Kings are mere tallow-candles, nine in ten, | |
| Wanting a little snuffing now and then. |
1832. T. Moore, Mem. (1853), VI. 257. Jekyll’s saying, when it was mentioned that the Russians during their stay in England eat up great quantities of tallow candles, that it was a species of food ‘bad for the liver, but good for the lights.’
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. vii. 229. My parents … used only tallow candles in plated candlesticks.
Hence Tallow-candle v. (nonce-wd.), trans. to smear or rub with a tallow candle.
1894. Blackmore, Perlycross, 48. The nap of his old velvet-coat where a wicked boy had tallow-candled it.
