▪ I. hance, n.
(hɑːns, -æ-)
Also 6 hawnce, hawnse, haunse, 7 haanse, 6–9 hanse, haunce.
[perh. a. AF. *haunce = OF. hauce, haulce, later hausse rise, elevation, raised part, f. hausser see hance v.]
† 1. The lintel of a door or window. Obs.
| 1534 More On the Passion Wks. 1295/2 He commaunded..they shoulde bysprincle the postes and the hawnce of their doores with the bloud of the lambe. Ibid. 1297/2 Marke ourselfe..in the hawnce of oure foreheade, wyth the letter of Tau. 1552 Huloet, Haunce of a dore or other lyke, limen..supercilium. 1585 Higins tr. Junius' Nomenclator 213/2 supercilium..the hanse of a doore. 1611 Cotgr., Claveau..the Haunse, or Lintell of a doore. 1618 [see 5]. |
2. Naut. a. A curved rise from a lower to a higher part, as of the fife-rails or bulwarks from the waist to the quarter-deck. Also erroneously hanch or haunch. b. = haunch.
(Viewed from the ‘higher part’, the ‘rise’ was a fall or descent; hence, the explanation in Harris and later Dicts.)
| 1637 Heywood Royal Ship 41 Upon the Hances of the waste are foure Figures. 1664 E. Bushnell Compl. Shipwright 11 Then set off the Tumbling Home, at the Height of the two first Haanses. 1710 J. Harris Lex. Techn., Hances (in a Ship) are Falls or Descents of the Fife-Rails, which are placed on Banisters on the poop, Quarter-Deck, &c., down to the Gangway. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 123 Hance or hanch. A sudden fall or break, as from the drifts forward and aft to the waist. Also those breaks in the rudder, &c., at the parts where it suddenly becomes narrower. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Hances, spandrels; the falls or descents of fife-rails. |
3. Arch. The arc of smaller radius at the springing of an elliptical or many-centred arch. Now usually viewed as the ‘haunch’ of the arch, and often so spelt: cf. haunch.
| 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 33 A part of the Ellipis..which is called the Hanse; The other part..is called the Scheam. 1725 W. Halfpenny Sound Building 9 If the Arch is required to be quicker or flatter on the Hanse. 1828 J. M. Spearman Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 269 The exterior surface is formed by two planes touching the curvé on the hances, and meeting in a ridge over the vertex of the arch. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1842–76 Gwilt Archit. Gloss., Hance, the small arch which often joins a straight lintel to a jamb. Hence the term Hance arch. |
† 4. transf. A curved or rounded part of a body. Cf. haunch. Obs. rare.
| 1778 Phil. Trans. LXVIII. i. 69 The last shot..struck..against a former shot..with the hance of its end so as to flatten it in that part. |
5. Comb., as hance-head = 1.
| 1618 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 207 The Jawmes and munions to be of white stone with hance heads also of white stone. 1886 Ibid. 112 The arches, or hanse-heads, were cut out of the window-heads, which are now square at the top. |
Hence hanced a., provided with a hance.
| 1886 Willis & Clark Cambridge III. 555 Rectangular windows divided by monials into two or three lights, each light being ‘hansed’ or arch-headed. |
▪ II. † hance, v. Obs.
Forms: 4–6 haunce, 4–7 hauns(e, 5 hawnce, 6 haunsh, 6–7 hance.
[app. a. AF. *hauncer for OF. haucer, haulcer (F. hausser) to raise. Cf. enhance.]
trans. To raise, lift, elevate, exalt; = enhance 1. 2.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 12436 Alle þese kalle men ‘cyrcumstaunces’ Þat vn to þe grete dede men haunces. 1382 Wyclif Ps. xxxvi[i]. 35 The vnpitouse aboue hauncid. c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 121 To ben haunsyd in hyȝe estate. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 230/2 Hawncyn, or heynyn..exalto, elevo, sublevo. ? a 1500 Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.) v. 424 He haunshed our kinde on high. Ibid. vi. 98 Meeke also he haunsed has. c 1500 Melusine xlix. 326 Or euer the geaunt myght have haunced his Clubbe. 1513 More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 791 Every thing was haunsed above the measure. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 110 Yt toe the skytyp is haunced. |
b. (?) To excite with liquor, ‘elevate’.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Trav. Wks. iii. 78/1 At the Table..every man did his best endeauour to hauns mee for my welcome. [Cf. Nares s.v. Hanced.] |
Hence † ˈhancing vbl. n., raising, elevation.
| 1382 Wyclif Jer. xlix. 16 Thin owne hauncyng desceyuede thee. 1589 Pappe w. Hatchet (1844) 36 The hogshead was euen come to the hauncing, and nothing could be drawn from him but dregs. |