[Fr. = head of a lance (fer lit. ‘iron’).]
1. Her. A lance-head used as a charge.
1892. Woodward & Burnett, Heraldry, II. 731. Fer-de-lance, sometimes pointed, sometimes blunt.
2. (See quots.)
1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 319. The Yellow Viper of Martinique (Bothrops lanceolatus) called Fer-de-Lance there.
1888. Riverside Nat. Hist., III. 396. The genus Trigonocephalus includes the most venomous animal of the western hemisphere, the celebrated fer-de-lance, T. lanceolatus, of Brazil.
