v. [a. F. transpercer, f. TRANS- + percer to pierce. Cf. TRESPERCE.]
1. trans. To pierce through from side to side (with the agent or the instrument as subject: cf. PIERCE v.1).
1594. Drayton, Idea, i. Then transpierce the Coarse.
1624. Heywood, Gunaik., III. 160. She snatcht up a sword with which she transpierst her selfe.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, II. 68. The sides transpierced return a rattling sound.
1725. Pope, Odyss., X. 188. I launch’d my spear, and with a sudden wound Transpierc’d his back, and fix’d him to the ground.
1857. Dufferin, Lett. High Lat., xii. (ed. 3), 364. He falls, transpierced by many wounds.
b. transf. and fig.: esp. said of the effect of emotion, and the action of wind, light, sight, etc.
1598. Drayton, Heroic. Ep., C’tess Salisbury to Bl. Prince. Is that great hart, that did aspire so hie, So soone transpersed with a womans eye?
1601. Daniel, Civ. Wars, VI. cxiv. Whereof the proofe was such As sharpest pride could not transpearce the same.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., Mar. (1729), 197. The sharp Easterly and Northerly Winds transpierce, and dry them up.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xlvi. IV. 479, note. The eye of Tacitus seems to have transpierced the camp of the Parthians and the walls of the haram.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Spir. Laws, Wks. (Bohn), I. 67. The divine question which searches men, and transpierces every false reputation.
2. To make one’s way through; to pass through, penetrate; in quot. 1908, to extend through. rare.
1604. W. Harbert, Poems (Grosart), 92. If England’s loadestarre … Could the firme center’s regiment transpearse.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 93. Compound spar…. In a porcelain heat, it vitrifies with the crucible, which it transpierces.
1908. Athenæum, 6 June, 701/3. A metal rod … transpierces the box.
Hence Transpierced ppl. a.; Transpiercing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1592. Daniel, Compl. Rosamond, Wks. (1717), 42. Transpiercing Rays of christal pointed Eyes.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, II. xlv. 247. Such transpiercings as rankle the flesh within.
1838. Mrs. Browning, Isobel’s Child, x. Dear Lord, who spreadest out above Thy loving, transpierced hands.
