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Glite Dictionary
lancer

lancer

3 9.9
A soldier on horseback armed with a long spear, often in Europe in the past
  • noun
  • /ˈlænsər/
  • Literature
translation icon : lancero
  • Polish troops were recruited into the Grand Army, with Polish Lancers even forming part of Napoleon's elite Imperial Guard.
  • Polish lancers

Examples

  • The museum displayed an impressive painting of lancers charging into battle during the Napoleonic Wars.

  • We got trapped between a patrol of dragoons and a patrol of lancers.

    The Alamo (1960)

  • But two of the lancers were missing.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • But we'll match them with our lancers.

    Waterloo (1970)

  • The Spanish lancers charged the native force, scattering it.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Now you understand why the 27th lancers Have been ordered to Sebastopol.

    The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

  • Captain Vickers, 27th lancers, reporting for duty, sir.

    The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

  • However, the Romans had settled large numbers of Sarmatian heavy lancers in northern Britain.

    Blog text (15)

  • Mounted lancers could easily disperse a native infantry force on the floodplain, but could not possibly charge effectively up the Antelope Mesa escarpment.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The historic battle featured a charge by the brave lancers armed with lances.

Synonyms

lanceman
vslancer
  • Archaic
9.9

A soldier on horseback who fights using a long pole with a metal tip

is the standard historical term rather than the archaic form
uhlan
vslancer
  • Archaic
9.9

A soldier on horseback who carries a long spear used in Europe in the past

is the broader European lance cavalry term rather than a regional type
cavalry soldier
vslancer
6.0

A soldier who fights on horseback

is specifically a lance-armed mounted fighter not any mounted soldier

Surface Forms

lancer singular
lancers plural

Morphology

lancer = lance (semi-transparent) = lance + er

The word is formed from 'lance' + '-er', but the sense refers to a specialized historical soldier rather than any regular user of a lance.

Etymology

Lancer comes from the simple word lance, which means 'spear', plus the ending -er that makes someone who does something, like runner. So a lancer is literally 'a person with a spear', which explains the historic soldier on horseback who used a lance.