Lance
Lance (lans) , noun
[Old English lance, French lance, fr. Latin lancea; compare Greek lo`gchh. Compare Launch.]
1.
A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen, and often decorated with a small flag; also, a spear or harpoon used by whalers and fishermen.
A braver soldier never couched lance.
2.
A soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
3.
(Founding) A small iron rod which suspends the core of the mold in casting a shell.
4.
(Military) An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home.
5.
(Pyrotech.) One of the small paper cases filled with combustible composition, which mark the outlines of a figure.
6.
(Medicine) A lancet.
Collocations (7)
Free lance , in the Middle Ages, and subsequently, a knight or roving soldier, who was free to engage for any state or commander that purchased his services; hence, a person who assails institutions or opinions on his own responsibility without regard to party lines or deference to authority. See also freelance, n. and a., and freelancer.
Lance bucket (Cavalry) , a socket attached to a saddle or stirrup strap, in which to rest the but of a lance.
Lance corporal , same as Lancepesade.
Lance knight , a lansquenet. — B. Jonson
Lance snake (Zoology) , the fer-de-lance.
Stink-fire lance (Military) , a kind of fuse filled with a composition which burns with a suffocating odor; -- used in the counter operations of miners.
To break a lance , to engage in a tilt or contest.
Lance ({not transcribed}) , transitive verb
1.
To pierce with a lance, or with any similar weapon.
Seized the due victim, and with fury lanced
Her back.
2.
To open with a lancet; to pierce; as, to lance a vein or an abscess.
3.
To throw in the manner of a lance. See Lanch.