lance / lans/ • n. hist. a long weapon for thrusting, having a wooden shaft and a pointed steel head, used by a horseman in charging. ∎  a similar weapon used in hunting fish or whales. ∎ another term for lancer (sense 1). ∎  [usu. with adj.] a metal pipe supplying a jet of oxygen to a furnace or to a hot flame for cutting. ∎  a rigid tube at the end of a hose for pumping or spraying liquid.• v. [tr.] Med. prick or cut open with a lancet or other sharp instrument: abscesses should not be lanced until there is a soft spot in the center fig. the governor made it one of his priorities to lance the boil of corruption. ∎  pierce with or as if with a lance: the teenager had been lanced by a wooden splinter. ∎  [intr.] move suddenly and quickly: pain lanced through her.ORIGIN: Middle English: from Old French lance (noun), lancier (verb), from Latin lancea (noun).

lance sb. XIII. —(O)F. :- L. lancea, of alien orig. Lance corporal (XVIII) was based on synon. †lancepesade— F. †lancespessade— It. lancia spezzata lit. ‘broken lance’; lance sergeant (XIX) was analogical.
So lance vb. fling, hurl; (dial.) spring, bound; pierce, make incision in XIV. —(O)F. lancer, †-ier. lancer soldier armed with a lance. XVI. — F. lancier.

lance a lance is the emblem of St Jude, St Thomas the Apostle, St Gereon, a 4th-century martyr of Cologne, and St Maurice.