Search the Dictionary

To penetrate or pierce; to wound. Which, with his cruel tusk, him deadly cloyed. Spenser. He never shod horse but he cloyed him. Bacon.

termined, or dependent on something future; a contingency. His understanding could almost pierce into future contingets. South.

Resembling, or having the form of, a sieve; pierced with hokes; as, the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone; a cribriform compress. Cribriform cells (Bot.), those which have here and there oblique or transverse sieve plates, or places perforated with many holes.

el; a disposition to give unnecessary pain or suffering to others; inhumanity; barbarity. Pierced through the heart with your stern cruelty. Shak.

To wound or hurt deeply the snsibilities of; to pierce; to lacerate; as, sarcasm cuts to the quick. The man was cut to the heart. Addison.

To pierce with a dagger; to stab. [Obs.]

Anything resembling a dart; anything that pierces or wounds like a dart. The artful inquiry, whose venomed dart Scarce wounds the hearing while it stabs the heart. Hannan More.

To pierce or shoot through; to dart repeatedly: -- frequentative of dart. My star that dartles the red and the blue. R. Browning.

A round, flattish, wooden block, encircled by a rope, or an iron band, and pierced with three holes to receive the lanyard; -- used to extend the shrouds and stays, and for other purposes. Called also deadman's eye. Totten.

pression, as of the feelings, by outward signs; a manifestation; a show. Did your letters pierce the queen to any demonstration of grief Shak. Loyal demonstrations toward the prince. Prescott.

hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade. Be first to dig the ground. Dryden.

To pierce; to penetrate; -- followed by in or into. When I dipt into the future. Tennyson.

boscis, often including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxillæ) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larvæ (called maggots) being usually without feet.

A window pierced in a roof, and so set as to be vertical while the roof slopes away from it. Also, the gablet, or houselike structure, in which it is contained.

To shoot (a shaft) so as to pierce on the descent. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.

affects the earth, and prevents the growth of plants; aridity. The drought of March hath pierced to the root. Chaucer. In a drought the thirsty creatures cry. Dryden.

The top of a capstan which is pierced with sockets for levers used in turning it. See Illust. of Capstan. Drumhead court-martial (Mil.), a summary court-martial called to try offenses on the battlefield or the line of march, when, sometimes, a drumhead has to do service as a writing table.

accompanied by words; as, dumb show. This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Shak. To pierce into the dumb past. J. C. Shairp.

To pierce, scour, or rake with shot in the direction of the length of, as a work, or a line of troops. Campbell.