to break one's lance
- idiom
- Archaic
:
luchar por
- He was known to break his lance whenever he saw injustice.
Examples
-
Many activists are willing to break their lance for environmental justice.
-
In the courtroom, she broke her lance to defend the rights of the oppressed.
-
Don't break your lance!
-
He will break his lance for the rights of the oppressed!
-
Many activists choose to break their lance for social justice and equality.
-
When the debate began, she was ready to break her lance for her beliefs.
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He always breaks his lance in defense of those who cannot defend themselves.
Synonyms
8
6.8
To campaign strongly for a cause over a long time
1
7.9
To begin a determined public campaign to change something
Antonyms
How Passionate
∞
1.0
- Archaic
64
4.2
343
3.7
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The idiomatic sense ‘to engage in a noble struggle’ cannot be derived by simply combining 'break' (to damage), 'one's' and 'lance' (a spear); a literal reading yields ‘to break a spear’ rather than the metaphorical/archaismsense. The expression is historically rooted in jousting and uses a relatively low-frequency noun, so its figurative meaning requires cultural or lexical knowledge beyond knowing the parts, making it unpredictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Break one's lance comes from knights in old jousts, where a rider charged with a long spear called a lance and the spear might break when they struck an opponent. That's why today it means 'to fight for a cause' in a brave, honourable way.