lance

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A thrusting weapon with a long wooden shaft and a sharp metal head.
2. n. A similar implement for spearing fish.
3. n. A cavalry lancer.
4. n. Medicine See lancet.
5. v. To pierce with a lance.
6. v. Medicine To make a surgical incision in; cut into: lance a boil.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A long spear used rather by couching and in the charge than for throwing; especially, the long spear of the middle ages, and of certain modern cavalry regiments in which the use of this arm is retained. The war-lance of the fourteenth century was about 16 feet long; that of modern times is from 8½ to 11 feet A small flag is usually attached to the shaft of the lance near the head.
2. n. Any long and slender spear: applied loosely to weapons of savage tribes, etc.
3. n. The instrument with which a whale is killed after being harpooned and tired out. Two kinds are used, the hand lance and the bomb-lance, the latter being the more effectual. A boat's outfit usually includes three hand-lances.
4. n. In carpentry, a pointed blade, as that affixed to one side of a chipping-bit or router to sever the grain around the path of the tool. It is also used in certain crozes, gages, and planes.
5. n. A pyrotechnic squib used for various purposes.
6. n. An iron rod which is fixed across the earthen mold of a shell, and keeps it suspended in the air when the shell is cast. As soon as the shell is formed, this rod must be taken out with instruments made for that purpose. Wilhelm, Mil. Dict.
7. n. One skilled in the use of the lance; a soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
8. n. In ichthyology, same as sand-lance.
9. To pierce with a lance, or with any sharp-pointed instrument.
10. To open with or as if with a lancet: as, to lance an abscess.
11. To throw in the manner of a javelin; launch.
12. To shoot forth as a lance.
13. To shoot or spring up.
14. To pierce.
15. n. A balance.
16. n. A pointed stick of light timber used for the erection of a temporary telegraph-or telephone-line: used especially in military operations.

Wiktionary

1. n. A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.
2. n. A wooden spear, sometimes hollow, used in jousting or tilting, designed to shatter on impact with the opposing knight’s armour.
3. n. fishing A spear or harpoon used by whalers and fishermen.
4. n. military A soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
5. n. military An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home.
6. n. founding A small iron rod which suspends the core of the mold in casting a shell.
7. n. pyrotechnics One of the small paper cases filled with combustible composition, which mark the outlines of a figure.
8. n. medicine A lancet.
9. v. To pierce with a lance, or with any similar weapon.
10. v. To open with a lancet; to pierce; as, to lance a vein or an abscess.
11. v. To throw in the manner of a lance; to lanch.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. 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.
2. n. A soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
3. n. (Founding) A small iron rod which suspends the core of the mold in casting a shell.
4. n. (Mil.) An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home.
5. n. (Pyrotech.) One of the small paper cases filled with combustible composition, which mark the outlines of a figure.
6. n. (Med.) A lancet.
7. v. To pierce with a lance, or with any similar weapon.
8. v. To open with a lancet; to pierce.
9. v. To throw in the manner of a lance. See Lanch.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a surgical knife with a pointed double-edged blade; used for punctures and small incisions
2. n. a long pointed rod used as a tool or weapon
3. v. pierce with a lance, as in a knights' fight
4. v. move quickly, as if by cutting one's way
5. v. open by piercing with a lancet
6. n. an implement with a shaft and barbed point used for catching fish