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h its beak; to strike at with anything pointed; to act upon with a pointed instrument; to pierce; to prick, as with a pin.

To pierce with small holes; to cut the edge of, as cloth or paper, in small scallops or angles.

Pierced with small holes; worked in eyelets; scalloped on the edge. Shak.

To stab; to pierce; to spear, \as fish. [Obs.] Carew.

That which pricks or pierces; the sharp end of anything, esp. the sharp end of a piercing instrument, as a needle or a pin.

To pierce with a poniard; to stab. Cowper.

To strike or seize with the talons; to pierce, as with the talons. [Archaic] Stooped from his highest pitch to pounce a wren. Cowper. Now pounce him lightly, And as he roars and rages, let's go deeper. J. Fletcher.

Ornamented with perforations or dots. [Obs.] "Gilt bowls pounced and pierced." Holinshed.

To pierce slightly with a sharp-pointed instrument or substance; to make a puncture in, or to make by puncturing; to drive a fine point into; as, to prick one with a pin, needle, etc.; to prick a card; to prick holes in paper.

To pierce with a small, pointed instrument, or the like; to prick; to make a puncture in; as, to puncture the skin.

Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen. The air is quick there, And it pierces and sharpens the stomach. Shak.

Hence, to extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut, as far as. If these examples of grown men reach not the case of children, let them examine. Locke.

nces, to encounter all the risks of a certain course. -- To run through, to transfix; to pierce, as with a sword. "[He] was run through the body by the man who had asked his advice." Addison. -- To run up. (a) To thrust up, as anything long and slender. (b) To increase; to enlarge by additions, as an account.run up a…

To pierce with saps.

Having a very thin edge or fine point; of a nature to cut or pierce easily; not blunt or dull; keen. He dies upon my scimeter's sharp point. Shak.

f the wall or trunk of the body; as, a pain in the side. One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side. John xix. 34.

navigable water, and rising nearly or quite to the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk.

railroads. It was sometimes so bent by the passage of a train as to slip over a wheel and pierce the bottom of a car.

To pierce with a spear; to kill with a spear; as, to spear a fish.

Put upon a spit; pierced as if by a spit.