LANCE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... shall be this Garment of Protection. You must wear it underneath your clothing. It has power to accumulate and exercise electrical repellent force. Perhaps you do not know what that means, so I will explain more fully. When any missile, such as a bullet, sword or lance, approaches your person, its rush through the air will arouse the repellent force of which I speak, and this force, being more powerful than the projective force, will arrest the flight of the missile and throw it back again. Therefore nothing can touch ...

— The Master Key - An Electrical Fairy Tale • L. Frank Baum

... prevent harm to his person, who had willed him not to arm, or show himself once to Scylla; but disdaining not to venture life for his brave companions, he could not contain, but armed in all points, and taking a lance in either hand, he went up to the fore-deck, and ...

— THE ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES • CHARLES LAMB

... weir or the waterfall than be alone on that island with a maniac. But the chain was stretched straight and stiff as a lance,—she could not untwist it. She was still struggling, with pink fingers bruised and rust-stained, when something heavy crashed through the saplings and a voice cried ...

— The Incomplete Amorist • E. Nesbit

... Crusader was totally indifferent whether the infidel, who now approached on his gallant barb, as if borne on the wings of an eagle, came as friend or foe; perhaps, as a vowed champion of the Cross, he might rather have preferred the latter. He disengaged his lance from his saddle, seized it with the right hand, placed it in rest with its point half-elevated, gathered up the reins in the left, waked his horse's mettle with the spur, and prepared to encounter the stranger with the calm self-confidence belonging ...

— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various

... likely to suit you, I should think," said Lucian, regarding the little free-lance with ...

— The Silent House • Fergus Hume

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