Word.ws English Dictionary

break a lance

break a lance verb: to take a stand, to contend [with for ‘to the benefit of’] [with in favour of ‘to the benefit of’] [with against ‘in opposition to’].

Verb

break a lance (third-person singular simple present breaks a lance, present participle breaking a lance, simple past broke a lance, past participle broken a lance)

  1. (intransitive) to take a stand, to contend [with for ‘to the benefit of’] [with in favour of ‘to the benefit of’] [with against ‘in opposition to’]
    • But over the difficult and important passage 2 Cor 12:1 10 she breaks a lance with me, and a response here may be a testimony to the seriousness with which I treat her comments.2003, Paul and the Corinthians: Studies on a Community in Conflict : Essays in Honour of Margaret Thrall, E. J. Brill, →ISBN, page 303
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, a, lance.

Forms of break a lance

third-person singular presentbreaks a lance
present participlebreaking a lance
pastbroke a lance
past participlebroken a lance

Origin of break a lance

After the knightly practice of jousting.

Questions about break a lance

What does break a lance mean?
Break a lance means to take a stand, to contend [with for ‘to the benefit of’] [with in favour of ‘to the benefit of’] [with against ‘in opposition to’].
What part of speech is break a lance?
Break a lance is a verb.
What is the past tense of break a lance?
The past tense of break a lance is broke a lance.

Words near break a lance in the dictionary

  1. break a butterfly upon the wheel
  2. break a fly on a wheel
  3. break a fly on the wheel
  4. break a fly upon a wheel
  5. break a fly upon the wheel
  6. break a lance
  7. break a leg
  8. break a promise
  9. break a sweat
  10. break and enter
  11. break and enters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break a lance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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