What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Lance vs Spire - What's the difference?

lance | spire |

As verbs the difference between lance and spire

is that lance is while spire is of a seed, plant etc: to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate or spire can be (obsolete) to breathe.

As a noun spire is

or spire can be one of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.

lance

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.
  • * 1590 , William Shakespeare, Henry VI , Part III, Act II, Scene III, line 15.
  • Thy brother’s blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, Broach’d with the steely point of Clifford’s lance ...
  • * 1909 , Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor , page 65.
  • The head of the lance was commonly of the leaf form, and sometimes approached that of the lozenge; it was very seldom barbed, although this variety, together with the others, appears upon the .
  • A wooden spear, sometimes hollow, used in jousting or tilting, designed to shatter on impact with the opposing knight’s armour.
  • * 1591 , William Shakespeare, Henry VI , Part I, Act III, Scene II, line 49.
  • What will you do, good greybeard? Break a lance, And run a-tilt at Death within a chair?
  • (fishing) A spear or harpoon used by whalers and fishermen.
  • (military) A soldier armed with a lance; a lancer.
  • (military) An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home.
  • (founding) A small iron rod which suspends the core of the mold in casting a shell.
  • (pyrotechnics) One of the small paper cases filled with combustible composition, which mark the outlines of a figure.
  • (medicine) A lancet.
  • Derived terms

    * free lance * lance bucket (cavalry) * lance corporal * lance fish (zoology) * lance knight * lance sergeant * lancer * lance snake (zoology) * stink-fire lance (military)

    Verb

    (lanc)
  • To pierce with a lance, or with any similar weapon.
  • Seized the due victim, and with fury lanced Her back. Dryden.
  • To open with a lancet; to pierce; as, to lance a vein or an abscess.
  • To throw in the manner of a lance; to lanch.
  • See also

    * javelin * pike * spear

    Anagrams

    * ----

    spire

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) . Cognate with Dutch spier, German Spier, (Spiere), Danish spir, Norwegian spir, Swedish spira.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A young shoot of a plant; a spear.
  • * 1913 ,
  • Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire , and was breaking it to get the seeds.
  • A sharp or tapering point.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1907, author=
  • , title=The Dust of Conflict , chapter=1 citation , passage=A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.}}
  • A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof.
  • The spire of the church rose high above the town.
  • The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit.
  • * Shakespeare
  • the spire and top of praises
  • (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
  • Verb

    (spir)
  • Of a seed, plant etc.: to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.5:
  • In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre , / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre.
  • * Mortimer
  • It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms.
  • To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) spirer, and its source, (etyl) .

    Verb

    (spir)
  • (obsolete) To breathe.
  • (Shenstone)

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) spire.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil.
  • A spiral.
  • (Dryden)
  • (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.
  • Anagrams

    * ----