Forms: 5 lan-, lawncette, lawnset, 6 launcette, 6–8 launcet, 6– lancet. [ad. OF. F. lancette, dim. of lance LANCE sb.1 Cf. It. lancetta.]
† 1. a. ? A small lance, a dart. b. In whale-fishery = LANCE sb.1 2. Obs.
c. 1420. Siege Rouen, in Archæologia, XXI. 52. And also lawnsetys were leyde on hey, For to schete both ferre an ney.
1752. Bond, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 430. Which the fishers observing, row up and dispatch the whale with long lancets.
2. A surgical instrument of various forms usually with two edges and a point like a lance, used for bleeding, opening abscesses, etc.
c. 1440. [see LANCENT].
1474. Caxton, Chesse, 86. He dyd his vysage to be kutte wyth a knyf and lancettis endlong and overthwart.
1530. Palsgr., 237/1. Lancet, an instrument, lancette.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg. (1586), 64. Cut the Scrophule … with a sharpe instrument, as with a launcet.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 18. Without question each Surgeons Mate knoweth a Launcet as well as myself.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., II. iv. And calls for a Lancet, rather than a Julep.
1775. Sheridan, St. Patr. Day, I. i. Such an arm for a bandage, veins that seemed to invite the Lancet.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 146. When they underwent the operation of the lancet, the doctor’s wife and another lady were present.
1839. Druitt, Surgeon’s Vade Mecum, 387. The operator … pushes the lancet obliquely into the vein.
b. Ent. (See quot.)
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 362. Scalpella (the Lancets), a pair of instruments, usually more slender than the Cultelli, which probably enter the veins or sap-vessels, and together with them form a tube for suction.
3. Short for lancet-arch, -light, -window.
1848. B. Webb, Continent. Ecclesiol., 45. Two stages of tall Pointed arches, and a huge lancet within each.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 622. Greenish glimmerings through the lancets.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 296. Some gable-end with its lofty lancets shows the noble scale of the ancient church.
4. attrib. and Comb., as lancet-edge, † -ichthyodont; lancet-shaped adj.; lancet-fish, the doctor-fish (Acanthurus); † lancet-loupe, a loophole for throwing darts (cf. 1 a).
1875. Carpentry & Join., 52. A side filister … having a second point or *lancet edge to cut the fibres across as the work proceeds.
1840. Mudie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd. (1849), 303. Acanthurus, *Lancet-fishes, have … a strong spine on each side of the tail, as sharp as a lancet, with which they inflict severe wounds.
1708. Phil. Trans., XXVI. 78. The *Lancet or Mucronated Ichthyodont.
1562. Phaër, Æneid, IX. Cc j. The Troyans … through their *launcet loupes their whirling darts do thick bestowe.
1899. Cagney, trans. Jaksch’s Clin. Diagn., vi. (ed. 4), 232. Certain *lancet-shaped bodies.
b. Arch., as lancet arch, one with an acutely pointed head resembling the blade of a lancet; lancet window, a high and narrow window terminating in a lancet arch; similarly, lancet Gothic, lancet light, lancet style.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 587. *Lancet-arch.
1848. Rickman, Archit., 50. Lancet arches … have a radius longer than the breadth of the arch.
1836. Gentl. Mag., Feb., 164/2. A chapel … The style is the *lancet Gothic.
1874. Parker, Goth. Archit., I. iv. 131. In the transept of Salisbury Cathedral … is a good example of a window of four *lancet-lights.
1849. Freeman, Archit., 352. The details lose the great distinctness of the *Lancet style.
1781. J. Warton, Kiddington (1783), 17. Here have been dug up, pieces of the mouldings of *lancet windows.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., ii. (1878), 20. The dusky light that came through a small lancet window.
Hence Lanceteer, one who uses a lancet; a surgeon. Lanceted a., (of a window) having a lancet arch; (of a church) having lancet-windows.
1824. Examiner, 8/2. A person named Mort–r, a lanceteer, residing in the same place.
1855. Whewell, in Mrs. S. Douglas, Life (1881), 582. Where, rich-glowing, the light streams through the lanceted window.
1864. Crowdy, Ch. Choirmaster, 27. Daily service performed in a little lancetted church in the clayey village of Littlemore.
