transpierce

present singular third person transpierces · participle present transpiercing · participle past transpierced · past transpierced

1. transitiveTo pierce through; to pass through.

   Now, while the angry trumpet sounds alarms, / And dying groans transpierce the wounded air […]

   c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   3 more examples

   [F]oorthvvith her eyes bred her eye-ſore, the firſt vvhite vvhereon their tranſpiercing arrovves ſtuck, being the breathleſſe corps of Leander: vvith the ſodaine contemplation of this piteous ſpectacle of her loue, ſodden to haddocks meate, her ſorrovve could not chooſe but be indefinite, […]

   1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 45

   Giue her th' Eoan brightnesse, / Wing'd with that subtill lightnesse, / That doth trans-pierce the Ayre; […]

   1619, Michael Drayton, “[Odes.] To the New Yeere.”, in Cyril Brett, editor, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1907, →OCLC, page 59, lines 19–21

   The upblaze of reflected heat burns my cheeks and eyes. Her body swims before me, spangled and transpierced by shafts of light caught in my tears. I croak that I am sorry for having invaded her hut.

   2010, John Howard Griffin, Nuni

   Synonyms: penetrate, permeate