Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Lance

Lance (lăns), n. [OE. lance, F. lance, fr. L. lancea; cf. Gr. λόγχη. Cf. 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. Shak.

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.

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. — 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 (Zoöl.), 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.

Lance, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lanced; p. pr. & vb. n. Lancing.] 1. To pierce with a lance, or with any similar weapon.

Seized the due victim, and with fury lanced Her back. Dryden.

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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.