A lance is a weapon used in war, consisting of a wooden shaft with a sharpened metal tip. It is most often used by men on horse-back - in the army in the hands of Lancer regiments of light cavalry, and by medieval knights in jousting competitions.
Another meaning of lance is to puncture a blister or abscess.
2. Reading, writing and talking?
Answer: Language
Language may be defined as the expression of ideas by words or written characters.
3. Pointy fishy burrower
Answer: Lancelet
Lancelet is the name given to small slender fish-like creatures that live in temperate or tropical waters. About 5 to 8 cm long, they are transparent, and burrow themselves vertically in sand, head up.
4. Elementary, my dear reader?
Answer: Lanthanum
One of the rare earth metals, lanthanum is soft and silvery in colour. Atomic number 57, atomic weight 139. Unlike the spelling of aluminium/aluminum it ends -um rather than -ium even in UK English!
5. Men with nine-foot weapons
Answer: Lancers
Lancers are light cavalry, named for their main weapon, a nine-foot lance. Originally lancer regiments rode horses, but nowadays they tend to use light fast armoured vehicles, but maintaining a traditional role of scouting.
6. Property renter
Answer: Landlord
A person who rents out property to someone else is a landlord.
7. Window cutter?
Answer: Lancet
The word lancet describes a sharp delicate knife, used in surgery. A type of window often seen in churches is called a lancet window, being long and narrow with a pointed upper end.
8. Animal portrayer
Answer: Landseer
Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873) was a famous English painter who specialised in portraying animals. Some of his efforts are so popular that copies of them are almost clichés. The picture of a stag on a Scottish hilltop, "Monarch of the Glen" is probably the most well-known.
9. Light provider
Answer: Lantern
In architecture, an erection, often a tower, on the top of a building, or a dome, whose purpose is to allow additional light into the building, is called a lantern.
The word is also used to describe a smaller device for providing light, usually hand-held, and lit within by a candle or oil.
10. Bavarian carriage
Answer: Landau
Landau is a town in Bavaria, Germany, where a particular type of horse drawn carriage was first built in the 18th century. The landau has a top that may be opened and thrown back. The word is often used nowadays to describe a car with a similar facility, otherwise known as a convertible.
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