Forms: 6 lancere, 6–7 launcier, 6–8 lancier, 7 lanceer(e, launceer, launcer, 7– lancer. [a. or ad. F. lancier, f. lance LANCE sb.1 Cf. late L. lanceārius or lanciārius.]
1. A (cavalry) soldier armed with a lance; now only, a soldier belonging to one of certain regiments officially called Lancers.
In the British army there are now [c. 1900] six regiments of Lancers, the 5th, 9th, 12th, 16th, 17th and 21st. They are armed with carbine (formerly sword) and pistol as well as lance.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., I. ii. F 5 b. Backt by stout Lanceres of Germany.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xiii. § 107. 740. In his Company were … not aboue fifteene Lanciers.
1611. Florio, Lanciere, a launcier.
1648. Lanc. Tracts (Chetham Soc.), 267. Collonal Thornhaugh … was slaine, being ran into the body, and thigh, and head, by the enemies Launcers.
1712. Perquisite Monger, 14. Invested with the Command of a Regiment of Horse and a Troop of Lanciers.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 159. The lancer is to have his lance near the right foot.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 362. The lancer has sword and pistol besides his lance.
transf. a. 1657. Lovelace, Poems (1864), 177. The heron mounted doth appear On his own Peg’sus a lanceer.
2. pl. The name of a species of quadrille. Also the music proper to this dance.
1862. Athenæum, 25 Jan., 111. The ‘Lancers,’ now so fashionable, was introduced by Laborde in 1836.
1868. B. Harte, Arctic Vision. Trip it all ye merry dancers In the airiest of lancers.
1870. H. Smart, Race for Wife, i. As she whirls by in the Valse, or glides in front of them in the Lancers.
3. attrib. and Comb., as lancer-braiding, -cap, -regiment; also lancer-like adj.
1897. Daily News, 16 March, 6/4. Bolero white cloth is arranged under the *lancer braiding.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., iii. (1855), 45. The lancer cap and green habit of the Honourable Juliana Beningfield!
1892. E. Reeves, Homeward Bound, 248. Making … quadrille and *lancer-like figures with sudden turns on the toes.
1868. Regul. & Ord. Army, ¶ 1146. In a *lancer Regiment, the Men who collected the lances, are to be marched to the baggage waggons.
