an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
to force or make a way into or through something; penetrate: to pierce to the heart.
Origin: 1250–1300; Middle English percen < Old French perc(i)er < Vulgar Latin *pertūsiāre, verbal derivative of Latin pertūsus, past participle of pertundere to bore a hole through, perforate, equivalent to per-per- + tundere to strike, beat
Related forms
pierce·a·ble, adjective
pierc·er, noun
un·pierce·a·ble, adjective
Synonyms 1. enter, puncture. Pierce,penetrate suggest the action of one object passing through another or making a way through and into another. The terms are used both concretely and figuratively. To pierce is to perforate quickly, as by stabbing; it suggests the use of a sharp, pointed instrument which is impelled by force: to pierce the flesh with a knife; a scream pierces one's ears. Penetrate suggests a slow or difficult movement: No ordinary bullet can penetrate an elephant's hide; to penetrate the depths of one's ignorance. 8. touch, move, strike, thrill.
c.1300, from Anglo-Fr. perser, O.Fr. percier (11c.), probably from V.L. *pertusiare, freq. of L. pertusus, pp. of pertundere "to thrust or bore through," from per- "through" + tundere "to beat, pound," from PIE base *(s)tud- "to beat, strike, push, thrust" (see obtuse). Piercing