Lance
Pronunciation
- RP enPR: läns, IPA: /lÉ‘Ëns/
- US enPR: lăns, IPA: /læns/
- Rhymes: -É‘Ëns
Origin
From Old French lance, from Latin lancea.
Full definition of lance
Noun
lance
(plural lances)- A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.
- 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III, Act II, Scene III, line 15.Thy brother’s blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, Broach’d with the steely point of Clifford’s lance...
- 1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, page 65.The head of the lance was commonly of the leaf form, and sometimes approached that of the lozenge; it was very seldom barbed, although this variety, together with the others, appears upon the Bayeux Tapestry.
- A wooden spear, sometimes hollow, used in jousting or tilting, designed to shatter on impact with the opposing knight’s armour.
- 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, Act III, Scene II, line 49.What will you do, good greybeard? Break a lance, And run a-tilt at Death within a chair?
- (fishing) A spear or harpoon used by whalers and fishermen.
- (military) A soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
- (military) An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home.
- (founding) A small iron rod which suspends the core of the mold in casting a shell.
- (pyrotechnics) One of the small paper cases filled with combustible composition, which mark the outlines of a figure.
- (medicine) A lancet.