Candle-holder

An abettor. The reference is to the practice of holding a candle in the Catholic Church for the reader, and in ordinary life to light a workman when he requires more light.

“Iʹll be candle-holder and look on.”—Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, i. 4.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.