pierce

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“
What is real and distinctive, an absolute part of me and my life, is that shape from the dead, with its threatening eyes which pierce--pierce She was losing her self-control.

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Definitions (20)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. transitive verb To cut or pass through with or as if with a sharp instrument; stab or penetrate.
  2. transitive verb To make a hole or opening in; perforate.
  3. transitive verb To make a way through: The path pierced the wilderness.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • I heard my name pierce the moment as if it had come from another time and place. —  4th ofJuly - Patterson
  • Still the sirens stitch the night air with terror -- pierce hearing's membranes with shrieks of pain and fear: still they weave the mesh that traps the heart in anguish, flash bright bars of power that cage memory in mourning and loss. —  MRZine.org
  • If the ground is hard to pierce or the soil sample is dense and hard to break up, the lawn bed needs to be aerated. —  News from www.thesunchronicle.com
  • Time to bring corruption before an International court written by ricardo pierce, March 13, 2009 —  Home
  • "I'm here to tattoo, pierce, and take tattoos off," says Elliott, who lives in Troy. —  detnews.com - Commuting
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

pierce:   piercing ·  pierced
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English percen, from Old French percer, probably from Vulgar Latin *pertūsiāre, from Latin pertūsus, past participle of pertundere, to bore through : per-, per- + tundere, to beat.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also pierse, pearce, pearse, peerce, perce; dial, pearch, peerch; from Middle English percen, peercyn, persen, parcen, perchen, perishen, perisshen, from Old French percer, perser, percier, perchier, parchier, French percer (Walloon percher), pierce, bore; origin uncertain; by some regarded as contracted from Old French pertuisier, French pertuiser (= Italian pertugiare), from pertuis = Italian pertugio, a hole, from Middle Latin *pertusium, also pertusus, a hole, from Latin pertusus, past participle of pertundere, perforate, from per, through, + tundere, beat: see pertuse. Cf. partizan, from the same source. Cf. also parch.
 

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/pirs/
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