"piercing" in the verb sense

1. pierce

cut or make a way through

"the knife cut through the flesh"

"The path pierced the jungle"

"Light pierced through the forest"

2. pierce

move or affect (a person's emotions or bodily feelings) deeply or sharply

"The cold pierced her bones"

"Her words pierced the students"

3. pierce

sound sharply or shrilly

"The scream pierced the night"

4. pierce, thrust

penetrate or cut through with a sharp instrument

5. pierce

make a hole into

"The needle pierced her flesh"

"piercing" in the adjective sense

1. acute, discriminating, incisive, keen, knifelike, penetrating, penetrative, piercing, sharp

having or demonstrating ability to recognize or draw fine distinctions

"an acute observer of politics and politicians"

"incisive comments"

"icy knifelike reasoning"

"as sharp and incisive as the stroke of a fang"

"penetrating insight"

"frequent penetrative observations"

2. cutting, keen, knifelike, piercing, stabbing, lancinate, lancinating

painful as if caused by a sharp instrument

"a cutting wind"

"keen winds"

"knifelike cold"

"piercing knifelike pains"

"piercing cold"

"piercing criticism"

"a stabbing pain"

"lancinating pain"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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