pierce

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   make a hole into

   The needle pierced the flesh.

2. 2
   verb

   move or affect a person's emotions or bodily feelings deeply or sharply

   The cold pierced the cave dweller's bones.

3. 3
   verb

   sound sharply or shrilly

   The scream pierced the night.

4. 4
   verb

   To puncture; to break through.

   The diver pierced the surface of the water with scarcely a splash.

From Middle English perce, from conjugated forms of Old French percier such as (jeo) pierce (“I pierce”), probably from Vulgar Latin *pertūsiō, from Latin pertūsus, past participle of pertundō (“thrust or bore through”), from per- (“through”) + tundō (“beat, pound”). Displaced native Old English þȳrlian (literally “to hole”).

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