pierced

[peerst]

adjective

1. punctured or perforated, as to form a decorative design.

   a pendant in pierced copper.

2. relating to or being a body part punctured for the purpose of inserting jewelry.

   From jungle tribes to desert nomads to royalty, pierced ears were indicators of both beauty and social standing.

3. relating to or being jewelry attached through a punctured body part: Nude bellies can be enhanced with pierced navel rings.

   Pierced earrings cannot be returned or exchanged due to hygiene reasons.

   Nude bellies can be enhanced with pierced navel rings.

4. Heraldry.,  (of a charge) open at the center to reveal the field.

   a lozenge pierced.

Other Word Forms

• unpierced adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pierced¹

First recorded in 1300–50; pierce, -ed ²

Example Sentences

It looked as if it had either suffered a heavy blow to the forehead or been pierced by a bullet above the left eye.

From BBC

Come nightfall, the eerie silence is often pierced by the woeful bleat of a wandering burro.

From Los Angeles Times

Last year I came millimeters from death when that bullet pierced through my skin.

From Salon

It was just another Friday morning on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, a few kilometres from the coast of China, when an air raid siren pierced the calm.

From BBC

He was thinking about the dog as the knife pierced his skin, plunging into the back of his neck and then into his ear.

From Salon

When To Use

What does pierced mean?

Pierced is an adjective that describes things that have had holes made in them by being penetrated or punctured, usually with something sharp.The word comes from the past tense of the verb pierce, which means to penetrate or puncture things in this way. This sense of the word is associated with needles and other thin, sharp objects used to pierce surfaces. To pierce someone’s ear is to make a hole in it with a needle so that an earring can be inserted. This is called a piercing.Pierced is especially used to describe ears and other body parts that have had a hole put in them so that jewelry can be inserted, as in pierced ears, pierced lip, pierced nose, and pierced eyebrow.It can also describe someone who has piercings, as in He was one of those pierced and tattooed guys. Pierced metal is metal that has been perforated with holes, such as to form a design.Example: My ears aren’t pierced—this is just a clip-on earring.