Verb

(es)

(transitive)  To render motionless, by arousing terror, amazement or awe.

*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood. They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design.}}

(transitive)  To pierce with a sharp pointed weapon.

* 1919 ,

*:There was a little stream that ran not far away, in which he bathed, and down this on occasion would come a shoal of fish. Then the natives would assemble with spears, and with much shouting would transfix the great startled things as they hurried down to the sea.

(transitive)  To fix or impale.

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)