noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Obsolete form of lance. alt-of, obsolete
2. 2
   A balance. obsolete

   "Fortune all in equall launce doth sway."

3. 3
   very small silvery eellike schooling fishes that burrow into sandy beaches wordnet
4. 4
   sand eel, sand lance, fish of the family Ammodytidae

Verb

1. 1
   Obsolete form of lance. alt-of, obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms

lantlantsand eelsand lancesand lancesand launce

Example

More examples

"Fortune all in equall launce doth sway."

Etymology

Etymology 1

See lance.

Etymology 2

From Italian lance, Latin lanx, lancis (“plate, scale of a balance”); compare balance.

Related phrases

sand eelsand lance

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.