monstrance

Noun

monstrance (plural monstrances)

1. An ornamental, often precious receptacle, either open or with a transparent cover, in which the sacramental bread (consecrated host) is placed for Eucharistic adoration.
   • He loved to kneel down on the cold marble pavement and watch the priest, in his stiff flowered dalmatic, slowly and with white hands moving aside the veil of the tabernacle, or raising aloft the jewelled, lantern-shaped monstrance with that pallid wafer that at times, one would fain think, is...1891, Oscar Wilde, “Chapter 11”, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC
   • Sir Oswald had done pretty well during the war out of his timber, and there had been no death duties to pay for many years, not since the old man had died. But there was no doubt that the shoe was beginning to pinch. He had been obliged to sell that Spanish monstrance in '30, or was it '31?1935, Francis Beeding, “7/2”, in The Norwich Victims

   Synonyms:

   ostensorium, ostensory