Verb

to puncture; to break through

The diver pierced the surface of the water with scarcely a splash.

to pierce''' the enemy's line; a shot '''pierced the ship

* Dryden

I pierce her tender side.

to create a hole in the skin for the purpose of inserting jewelry

Can you believe he pierced his tongue?

to break or interrupt abruptly

A scream pierced the darkness.

(figurative) To penetrate; to affect deeply.

to pierce a mystery

* Alexander Pope

pierced with grief

* Shakespeare

Can no prayers pierce thee?

Verb

(penetrat)

To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.

Light penetrates darkness.

* {{quote-book, year=1879, title=The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph

, author=Th Du Moncel, page=166, publisher=Harper , passage=He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it.}}

(figuratively) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.

I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.

* Ray

things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate

To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.

to penetrate one's heart with pity

* M. Arnold

The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.

(Shakespeare)

To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.

To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus. (rfex)