LANCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Lance

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/læns/ Listen

noun

Lance n.

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.

(Mil.) 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.

(Med.) A lancet.

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.

Lance snake (Zool.), the fer-de-lance.

Stink-fire lance (Mil.), 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.

verb

Lance v. t. (past & past part. lanced; pres. part. lancing)

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.

See images of 'Lance'

Etymology of 'Lance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lance" Quotes from Famous Books

... for what it puts in front of me, and it is God who is truly my shield; my faith is only called a shield, because it brings me behind the bosses of the Almighty's buckler, against which no man can run a tilt, or into which no man can strike his lance, nor any devil either. God is a defence; and my trust, which is nothing in itself, is everything because of that with which it brings me into connection. Faith is the condition, and the only condition, of ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John • Alexander Maclaren

... carry a lance so bright; He shall roam the desert for spoil at night; And when morning shines on the tall palm tree, He shall find sweet welcome ...

— Chit-Chat; Nirvana; The Searchlight • Mathew Joseph Holt

... mind to perish where he stood, if need be, but never yield an inch; he was going to wait, with deadly patience, till he could count the stripes upon the first Bedouin's jacket, and then count them and let him have it. Another was going to sit still till the first lance reached within an inch of his breast, and then dodge it and seize it. I forbear to tell what he was going to do to that Bedouin that owned it. It makes my blood run cold to think of it. Another was going to scalp such Bedouins as fell to his share, and take ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... came four men-at-arms: two carried halbert, bill, axe, and lance; a third led the sumpter mules and the ambling palfrey, which served to bear Lord Marmion when he wished to relieve his battle steed; the most trusty of the four held on high the pennon, furled in its glossy blue streamers. ...

— The Prose Marmion - A Tale of the Scottish Border • Sara D. Jenkins

... Lance was in the rest, of stately beech: Nothing was wanting, but a Page, or 'Squire;— The Duke, with thistles, switch'd old Dumpling's breech; And off he clatter'd with ...

— Broad Grins • George Colman, the Younger

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