Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Medicine A surgical knife with a short, wide, pointed double-edged blade, used especially for making punctures and small incisions.
  • noun A lancet arch.
  • noun A lancet window.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small lance or javelin.
  • noun A small surgical instrument, sharp-pointed and generally two-edged, used in bloodletting and in opening tumors, abscesses, etc.
  • noun In arch., a lancet-window; an arch of lancet shape.
  • noun In entomology, one of the lower pair of piercing organs in the dipterous mouth; the scalpella: supposed by Kirby and Spence to represent the maxillæ of the haustellate mouth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A surgical knife-like instrument of various forms, commonly sharp-pointed and two-edged, used in venesection, and in opening abscesses, etc.
  • noun (Metal.) An iron bar used for tapping a melting furnace.
  • noun (Arch.) a pointed arch, of which the width, or span, is narrow compared with the height.
  • noun a name given to a style of architecture, in which lancet arches are common; -- peculiar to England and 13th century.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sharp, pointed, two-edged surgical instrument used in venisection and for opening abscesses etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an acutely pointed Gothic arch, like a lance
  • noun a surgical knife with a pointed double-edged blade; used for punctures and small incisions

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, diminutive of lance, lance; see lance.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French lancete diminutive of lance.

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Examples

  • The barber carried a piece of rusty hoop instead of a razor, and a pot of grease for lather, while the doctor, with a huge pill box and a knife, which he called his lancet, stood by to prescribe the treatment each patient was to receive.

    Owen Hartley; or, Ups and Downs A Tale of Land and Sea William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • -- It is the pocket-knife, not the lancet, that is oftener called into requisition.

    Hints for Lovers 1899

  • Then how does the Philanthus, in her long contact with the butchered Bee, manage to protect herself against that lancet, which is bent upon avenging the murder?

    More Hunting Wasps Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

  • The lancet was the magician's wand of the dark ages of medicine.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • "The lancet is a weapon which annually slays more than the sword," says Dr. Tully.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • "The lancet is a weapon which annually slays more than the sword," says

    Medical Essays, 1842-1882 Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • The lancet was the magician's wand of the dark ages of medicine.

    Medical Essays, 1842-1882 Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • The lancet is the preferable instrument in the performance of this operation.

    The Dog William Youatt 1811

  • The lancet is the anchor of hope in this disease; which must be repeated four or five times, or as often as the fever and difficulty of breathing increase, which is generally in the evening; antimonials, diluents, repeated small blisters about the chest, mucilage, pediluvium, warm bath.

    Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • Blood sugar testing is usually done with a special needle called a lancet and an electronic glucose monitor.

    All MayoClinic.com Topics 2010

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