PIERCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Pierce

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/pɪrs/ Listen

verb

Pierce v. t. (past & past part. pierced; pres. part. piercing)

To thrust into, penetrate, or transfix, with a pointed instrument. "I pierce... her tender side."

To penetrate; to enter; to force a way into or through; to pass into or through; as, to pierce the enemy's line; a shot pierced the ship.

Fig.: To penetrate; to affect deeply; as, to pierce a mystery. "Pierced with grief." "Can no prayers pierce thee?"

Pierce v. i. To enter; to penetrate; to make a way into or through something, as a pointed instrument does; used literally and figuratively. "And pierced to the skin, but bit no more." "She would not pierce further into his meaning."

See images of 'Pierce'

Etymology of 'Pierce'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Pierce" Quotes from Famous Books

... him and laid his hand upon the Prince's arm. "Beware," he adjured him solemnly, "Beware of the Wind in the Chimney. Against him only the Cloak may not protect you. His eyes are keen to pierce disguises. His hands are strong to break down spells. See to it that he does not snatch from you in an unguarded ...

— The Shadow Witch • Gertrude Crownfield

... and then she fell into one of her exalted moods, when she seemed to lose consciousness of the ordinary conditions around her, or rather to pierce deeper into their significance and beauty. Her speech would, at such times, become rhythmic and picturesque; she evidently saw vivid images before her, in which her ...

— The Daughters of Danaus • Mona Caird

... deficiency, physical or moral; his features are irregular but pleasing; the nose perhaps a little short, and the mouth a little womanish; his address is excellent, and he can express himself with point. But to pierce below these externals is to come on a vacuity of any sterling quality, a deliquescence of the moral nature, a frivolity and inconsequence of purpose that mark the nearly perfect fruit of a decadent age. He has a worthless smattering ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 7 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... never, oh, never again, I'll cultivate light blue or brown inebriety;[1] I'll give up all chance of a fracture or sprain, And part, worst of all, with Pierce Egan's[2] society. ...

— Gossip in a Library • Edmund Gosse

... lives a God to punish and avenge. Come forth, thou bringer once of bitter pangs, My precious jewel now,—my chiefest treasure— A mark I'll set thee, which the cry of grief Could never penetrate,—but thou shalt pierce it,— And thou, my trusty bowstring, that so oft For sport has served me faithfully and well, Desert me not in this dread hour of need,— Only be true this once, my own good cord, That hast so often wing'd the biting shaft:— For shouldst ...

— Wilhelm Tell - Title: William Tell • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

More quotes...