PIERCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Pierce mean? 

• PIERCE (noun)
  The noun PIERCE has 1 sense:

1. 14th President of the United States (1804-1869)

  Familiarity information: PIERCE used as a noun is very rare.

• PIERCE (verb)
  The verb PIERCE has 5 senses:

1. cut or make a way through

2. move or affect (a person's emotions or bodily feelings) deeply or sharply

3. sound sharply or shrilly

4. penetrate or cut through with a sharp instrument

5. make a hole into

  Familiarity information: PIERCE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PIERCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

14th President of the United States (1804-1869)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Franklin Pierce; Pierce; President Pierce

Instance hypernyms:

Chief Executive; President; President of the United States; United States President (the person who holds the office of head of state of the United States government)

• PIERCE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they pierce    ... he / she / it pierces   
Past simple: pierced   
Past participle: pierced   
-ing form: piercing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cut or make a way through

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

Light pierced through the forest

Hypernyms (to "pierce" is one way to...):

penetrate; perforate (pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pierce"):

break up; pick (attack with or as if with a pickaxe of ice or rocky ground, for example)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move or affect (a person's emotions or bodily feelings) deeply or sharply

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Context example:

Her words pierced the students

Hypernyms (to "pierce" is one way to...):

affect; impress; move; strike (have an emotional or cognitive impact upon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Sound sharply or shrilly

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Context example:

The scream pierced the night

Hypernyms (to "pierce" is one way to...):

sound (give off a certain sound or sounds)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Penetrate or cut through with a sharp instrument

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

pierce; thrust

Hypernyms (to "pierce" is one way to...):

penetrate; perforate (pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pierce"):

stick (pierce or penetrate or puncture with something pointed)

lance (pierce with a lance, as in a knights' fight)

gore (wound by piercing with a sharp or penetrating object or instrument)

horn; tusk (stab or pierce with a horn or tusk)

empale; impale; spike; transfix (pierce with a sharp stake or point)

center punch (make a small hole in something as a guide for a drill)

peg (pierce with a wooden pin or knock or thrust a wooden pin into)

stick (pierce with a thrust using a pointed instrument)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Make a hole into

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The needle pierced her flesh

Hypernyms (to "pierce" is one way to...):

penetrate; perforate (pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance)

"Pierce" entails doing...:

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pierce"):

puncture (pierce with a pointed object; make a hole into)

riddle (pierce with many holes)

prick; prickle (make a small hole into, as with a needle or a thorn)

bite (penetrate or cut, as with a knife)

perforate; punch (make a hole into or between, as for ease of separation)

bite; prick; sting (deliver a sting to)

tap (pierce in order to draw a liquid from)

poke (make a hole by poking)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

Suddenly, a sharp, piercing pain shoots through the wrist and up your arm.

(Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

She withdrew herself a step behind the chair, to keep her own face out of Mrs. Steerforth's observation; and scrutinized me with a piercing gaze that never faltered, never shrunk.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By the side of the box was its cover, pierced with holes here and there.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A man like him, in his situation! with a heart pierced, wounded, almost broken!

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The Sausage’s piercing trajectory meant that the Milky Way’s disk was probably puffed up or even fractured following the impact, and the Milky Way had to re-grow a new disk.

(The Gaia Sausage: the major collision that changed the Milky Way, University of Cambridge)

Three broken ribs, one at least of which has pierced the lungs.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Pierced with small holes as in a sieve.

(Cribriform, NCI Dictionary)

Also called: Tattoos, Body art, Body piercing

(Piercing and Tattoos, NIH)

She weeps continually, and accuses herself unjustly as the cause of his death; her words pierce my heart.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)