Forms: 3–8 launce, (4 lancie), 5 lans, launse, lence, 6 lanse, (launch), lawnce, 8 Sc. lanss, 4– lance. See also LAUNCE. [a. F. lance = Pr. lansa, Catal. llansa, Sp. lanza, Pg. lança, It. lancia:—L. lancea. The F. word has been adopted in all the Teut. langs.: MDu. lanse, lancie (Du. lans), MHG., mod.G. lanze, Da. landse, Sw. lans.
According to Varro the L. word was from a Spanish (? Iberian) source. Connection with the synonymous Gr. λόγχη is phonologically improbable.]
1. A weapon, consisting of a long wooden shaft and an iron or steel head, held by a horseman in charging at full speed, and sustained formerly by a rest, now by a strap, through which the arm is passed. To break a lance (see BREAK v. 3). Lance in rest (see REST).
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 281/118. Þreo launcene he heold in is hond.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. III. 303. Alle that bereth baslarde, brode swerde or launce … Shal be demed to the deth.
c. 1473. G. Ashby, Active Policy Prince, 541. Youre Comyns shude nat bere dagger, ne Lance, Ne noon other wepins defensife.
1580. Sidney, Ps. XXXV. i. O Lord … take thy launce, and stoppe the way of those That seeke my bane.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. 303. The Indians kil them with launces and crossebowes.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 234. The combatants being mounted on horseback with Launces in their hands, run one at another a full gallop.
1777. Watson, Philip II. (1839), 43. The count’s lance broke on Henry’s corslet.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., lviii. III. 434. The lance was the … peculiar weapon of the knight.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), II. 193. Their arms are a long and heavy lance and a shield.
b. transf. and fig.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 351. And in his hond with many a firy launce He [Cupid] woundeth ofte.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, I. iv. (1494), b ij b/1. Tyme … all consumith with his sherpe launce.
1713. Young, Last Day, I. 128. And death might shake his threat’ning launce in vain.
1825. Longf., Sunrise on Hills, 10. Many a pinnacle Through the gray mist thrust up its shattered lance.
1880. C. & F. Darwin, Movem. Pl., 79. Their [the leaves] laminæ were … pressed against each other, forming a lance or wedge by which means they had broken through the ground.
1887. Mrs. Burnett, Little Ld. Fauntleroy, v. 86. He liked the big broad-branched trees, with the late afternoon sunlight striking golden lances through them.
† c. fig. Career as a soldier. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 29. Hitherto I have only touch’d him in his Courtship. I conclude him in his Lance.
† d. As a unit of measurement. Obs. rare–1.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xxxvii. 311. It riseth many elles, yea, many launces in height.
2. A similar weapon, used for various purposes, e.g., for spearing fish; also in the whale-fishery, with modifying prefixes, as bomb-, gun-, hand-lance, an instrument for killing the whale, after he has been harpooned and wearied out.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Fishery, [Whale-Fishery.] Thrusting a long steeled lance under his gills into his breast.
1790. Asiatic Res., II. 342. When a man dies, all his live stock, cloth, hatchets, fishing lances, and in short every moveable thing he possessed is buried with him.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 199. Earliest types of the hand-lances, formerly … used for killing whales … the old-fashioned, non-explosive gun-lance, and the bomb-lance.
3. = LANCET. Now rare.
1575. Turberv., Faulconrie, 346. If the pin open not of it selfe, slit it and open it with a little sharp launce of steele made whot.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex., I. x. 83. The veynes … swel out … offering themselues to the Launce, by incision hansomly to be cut.
1681. Glanvill, Sadducismus, II. 181. [He] took a Launce and launc’t one of her hands.
1769. R. Griffith, Gordian Knot, II. 122. By … the surgeon’s lance I was dragged back to life and wretchedness again.
1878. L. P. Meredith, Teeth, 18. If the lance is sharp, it generally does not hurt at all.
4. A horse-soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
1602. Segar, Hon. Mil. & Civ., IV. xiv. 224. Esquires … able at the Musters to present a Launce or light horse, for the Prince’s seruice.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., II. xxvi. (1810), 467. There is now in readinesse 150 Launces, which shall be presently embarqued.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 227. Those lances … were brave fellows.
1831. Scott, Cast. Dang., ii. A lance, in other words, a belted knight, commands this party.
b. Hist. A man-at-arms with his attendant archers, foot-soldiers, etc. Cf. F. lance fournie.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), I. 468. A lance in the technical language of those ages included the lighter cavalry attached to the man at arms, as well as himself.
1864. Kirk, Chas. Bold, II. IV. iii. 413. The ‘lance’ was simply the feudal family—the baron, or knight, with his wonted retinue of kinsmen and dependents.
† 5. A branch of a tree, a shoot. Obs.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 977. Lurked by launcez so lufly leued.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 138. Thou muste get thy graffes of the fayrest lanses, that thou canste fynde on the tree.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 132. Those [Graffs] you find to shoot up in one Lance, pinch off their tender tops.
6. In technical uses: a. Carpentry. ‘A pointed blade, usually employed to sever the grain on each side of the intended path of a chipping-bit or router’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875).
b. Mil. (a) ‘An iron rod which is fixed across the earthen mould of a shell, and which keeps it suspended in the air when it is cast.’ (b) ‘An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home into the bore’ (C. James, Milit. Dict., 1802).
c. Pyrotechny. (See quots.) [F. lance à feu.]
1878. Kentish, Pyrotechn. Treas., 112. Lances. These are little cases charged with white or coloured star composition.
1879. W. H. Browne, Pyrotechny, vii. 81. Lances are … small, thin cases, containing compositions which burn with a white or coloured flame.
7. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attributive, as lance-blade, -bucket, -butt, -game, -head, -rest, -shaft, -throw, -thrust; b. objective, as lance-breaking; c. instrumental, as lance-pierced, -worn adjs.; d. similative, as lance-acuminated, -leaved, -like, -shaped adjs.
1800. Asiatic Ann. Reg., Misc. Tracts, 271/1. Ovate, *lance-acuminated, entire towards the base.
1849. Stovel, Canne’s Necess., Introd. 9. Truths in his hand were like *lance-blades in a cupping instrument, they entered the whole length of their steel.
1829. Scott, Ho. of Aspen, I. i. Neither hunting, nor feasting, nor *lance-breaking for me!
1876. Jas. Grant, One of the ‘600,’ i. 5. Captains of troops will report to Lieutenant … on the state of the saddlery, holsters, and *lance-buckets.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., i. (1877), 36. When he came to the abbey-gate, he smote thereon with his *lance-butt.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. i. 108. The Just or *lance-game … differed materially from the tournament.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), I. vi. 173. The arrow and *lance heads, constructed from the amorphous masses of native flint.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 609. Take of *lance-leaved cinchona bark bruised, an ounce.
1579. J. Jones, Preserv. Bodie & Soule, I. xl. 87. Blasing Starres … as berdelike, *launcelike, swordlike [etc.].
1868. Lynch, Rivulet, CLXIII. ii. The lance-like rain, the darting hail.
1897. Dublin Rev., April, 375. The *lance-pierced side of Christ.
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., *Lance-rest.
1869. Boutell, Arms & Arm., x. 206. At this period [c. 1450–1500] a lance-rest was fixed to the upper part of the breast-plate on the right side.
1868. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. 314. It is not … likely that all the long and round and straight poles found in the Danish Mosses … have always been *Lance-shafts.
1776. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., Explan. Terms 389. Lanceolatæ, *lance-shaped.
1864. T. Moore, Brit. Ferns, 26. The leafy part of the frond is lance-shaped.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxviii. 282. On two occasions we came upon the walrus sleeping,—once within actual *lance-thrust.
1842. Faber, Styrian Lake, 269. Like bruised embossing on a *lance-worn shield.
8. Special comb.: lance-corporal [after LANCEPESADE] (see quot. 1802); † lance-egged a. Bot. = lance-ovate; lance-famed a., famed for prowess with the lance; lance-fish = LAUNCE; lance-head = lance-snake; lance-knife, ? = LANCET; lance-linear a. Bot., narrowly lanceolate, almost linear; lance-man, † (a) a highwayman; (b) a warrior armed with a lance; lance-oblong a. Bot., narrowly oblong; lance-oval a. Bot., narrowly oval; lance-ovate a. = prec.; lance-sergeant [on analogy of lance-corporal], a corporal acting as sergeant; lance-snake, a venomous snake of the American genus Bothrops (or Craspedocephalus), esp. B. lanceolatus, of the W. Indies; = FER-DE-LANCE 2.
1786. Grose, Milit. Antiq., I. 311. The lancepesata, anspesade, or as the present term is, *lance corporal.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v. Corporal, Lance-Corporal, one who acts as corporal, receiving pay as a private.
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 133. Corporals may be appointed to act as Lance-Serjeants, and the most approved Private Soldiers as Lance-Corporals.
1787. Fam. Plants, I. 242. Divisions of the Border *lance-egg’d.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XIII. 278. The *Lance-fam’d [δουρικλυτός] Idomen of Crete.
1859–62. Sir J. Richardson, etc. Museum Nat. Hist. (1868), II. 40/2. Amongst the former, or spine-tailed species [of Crotalidæ], are the *Lance-heads (Craspedocephalina) of the New World. Ibid., 41/1. The Lance-head is the most abundant of all serpents in the islands of Martinique and St. Lucia.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. cxi. 396. Others take a sharpe *launce-knife, and [etc.].
1787. Fam. Plants, I. 30. Petals … *lance-linear.
1589. Rider, Eng-Lat. Dict., A *Launce man, hastiger.
1592. Greene, Conny Catching, I. A 3 b. The Priggar is he that steales the horse…. The Priggar if he be a Launce man, that is, one that is already horst, then [etc.].
1598. Florio, Lanciatore … a lance-man, a pike-man.
1808. Pike, Sources Mississ., III. App. (1810), 11. The lancemen are always mounted.
1787. Fam. Plants, 1. 285. Germ *lance-oblong, compress’d.
a. 1794. Sir W. Jones, in Asiatic Res. (1795), IV. 292. Leaves opposite, *lance-oval, pointed at both ends.
1889. in Lancet, 27 April, I. 866/2. The cocci, as found in the blood of an inoculated animal, are, as a rule, oval or lance-oval in form.
1799. Asiatic Res., VI. 349. Leaflets … *lance-ovate, entire, smooth.
1815. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1838), XII. 617. I now beg leave to recommend to you *Lance Sergeant Graham of the Coldstream regiment of Guards.
1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 319. The last group of the American Pit Vipers is that of the *Lance Snakes. One of these is the Yellow Viper, of Martinique, called Fer-de-lance there.
