How to Use piercing in a Sentence

piercing

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of piercingnext
Synonyms for piercingnext
  • I tried to avoid his piercing stare.
  • She felt a piercing sadness when she heard the news.
  • She looked at me with piercing eyes, and I was suddenly frightened that she knew what I had done.
  • The plucky lead melody, bright and piercing, lingers in the air like a fond memory.
    — Billboard Staff, Billboard, 8 July 2022
  • The piercing blue eyes of huskies — those beloved, wolf-like canines — stand out among most dog breeds.
    — Roni Dengler, Discover Magazine, 4 Oct. 2018
  • There are no words to describe the piercing loss Winchester felt on the worst day of his life.
    — Vahe Gregorian, kansascity, 22 Sep. 2017
  • Cody had a piercing bark and Lacey just had a normal but vicious bark that day.
    — Robert Miller, cleveland, 26 Aug. 2021
  • These devices produce a piercing sound loud enough to wake you, your neighbors and the front desk, too.
    — Washington Post, 20 May 2021
  • More muscles and more lustrous hair and more piercing eyes.
    — Kenzie Bryant, Vanities, 19 June 2017
  • To best take care of your belly button ring post-piercing, make sure to clean it every day.
    — Leah Campano, Seventeen, 3 Feb. 2023
  • The piercing 30-second air horn blast is a wakeup call from the soft lapping waters.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 18 Aug. 2021
  • These children live in a place where the piercing whine of warplanes, the tremors of airstrikes and the humming buzz of armed drones are familiar sounds, even in times of cease-fire.
    — Arkansas Online, 24 July 2021
  • The piercing screams and shaky floorboards ushered Bad Bunny’s launch.
    — Thania Garcia, Variety, 1 Oct. 2022
  • Buarque’s eyes are more piercing, his chin slightly more pinched.
    — Washington Post, 7 Apr. 2022
  • On a recent Saturday, a group of parents in aprons worked in the school’s small kitchen amid a piercing smell of garlic and aged cabbage.
    — Julia Mio Inuma, Washington Post, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Every time the hapless Blount exited his front door, a piercing alarm would wail.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 9 May 2021
  • But an even more piercing moment came during a much quieter song.
    — New York Times, 20 Feb. 2022
  • On the wall hung a somber portrait of Carter, his small, piercing, black eyes gazing irritably down.
    — Jo Marchant, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Nov. 2022
  • With the unpredictability of the past two years, there's truly no knowing what will happen in the piercing world.
    — Gabi Thorne, Allure, 6 Dec. 2021
  • The most piercing lyricism is reserved for Wozzeck’s common-law wife, Marie, who falls victim to his madness.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2020
  • In the distance, three visiting hikers stopped dead in their tracks at the piercing sound and its echo bouncing off the walls of the ravine that separated them.
    — New York Times, 18 Feb. 2021
  • But every once in a while, a piercing alarm will erupt from the silence to alert gamers that a graphics card has been listed for sale somewhere on the internet.
    — Nicolás Rivero, Quartz, 27 July 2021
  • The beauty of the quilts occasionally belie the piercing nature of some of the subject matter.
    — Brienne Walsh, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2021
  • After all, only those on the highest level, able to navigate the most piercing pain, are singled out by God.
    — Rabbi Avi Weiss, sun-sentinel.com, 21 Mar. 2022
  • The long exposure to the elements hid one of the bust’s most striking aspects, eyes of silver that shoot a piercing gaze—now vivid again after a restoration.
    — Peter Saenger, WSJ, 18 June 2021
  • But picking up the pieces offers no such piercing clarity.
    — Danielle Ofri, The New Yorker, 1 Oct. 2020
  • Most disheartening of all, facts, the hard currency of truth-telling, are being debased in Trump’s post-fact world, a move that can mute the most piercing whistle.
    — Tom Mueller, Twin Cities, 9 Oct. 2019
  • This isn’t the kind of slow intuition that comes from Pisces, nor the piercing deep realization of Scorpio, nor the lofty higher truth of Sagittarius.
    — Emily Newhouse, Allure, 6 Dec. 2022
  • Its piercing alarm is activated with the simple press of a button, which also turns on flashing strobe lights.
    — Kristy Alpert, Travel + Leisure, 10 Sep. 2023
  • The tiny circular cutout in Fox’s dress was just large enough to display her bellybutton piercing which, to be fair, would totally have ruined the line of the dress otherwise.
    — Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 2 Mar. 2023
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piercing

2 of 2 noun
  • There's a small shop in town where they do tattooing and body piercing.
  • She got another ear piercing.
  • The same piercing pain, but now around the eyes, or above the eyes, or more to the point, behind the eyes.
    — Eduardo Halfon, The New York Review of Books, 23 June 2021
  • So what's the best way to get yourself a healthy piercing?
    — Fiona Ward, refinery29.com, 14 Jan. 2020
  • The star's first attempt at a nose piercing didn’t quite turn out as planned.
    — Sarah Midkiff, refinery29.com, 4 Jan. 2021
  • Who says piercings are reserved for your ears and face?
    — Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 22 Oct. 2023
  • And his nose-chain piercing gave him a unique look amid a rock era known for visual flair.
    — Matt Wake | [email protected], al, 3 May 2022
  • With her was Samantha Strong, a young activist with a green buzz cut and piercings.
    — E. Tammy Kim, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2024
  • An edge that’s folded over a bit, like a teenage ear awaiting a piercing.
    — Alex Beggs, Bon Appétit, 13 Feb. 2020
  • The healing period depends on the area of the piercing.
    — Mara Santilli, SELF, 6 Sep. 2022
  • And even physically, like the way they're described in the book, their faces are full of piercings and all this stuff.
    — Gabe Bergado, Teen Vogue, 22 Apr. 2019
  • Its front end was smashed, and a woman dressed in black, wearing a G.G. Allin T-shirt, chunky boots and a trail of lip piercings, got out.
    — Christopher Borrelli, chicagotribune.com, 15 June 2018
  • If your hole is a slit, push your earring in at the top where your original piercing was.
    — Jennifer Aldrich, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 June 2021
  • Her piercing wails could be heard inside the courtroom.
    — Washington Post, 11 May 2018
  • Tattoos and piercings are the least of the rapper’s transgressions.
    — Elizabeth De Luna, Rolling Stone, 13 Apr. 2023
  • The man, believed to be between 18 and 25 years old, had no tattoos and a piercing in his left ear, police said.
    — Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 5 May 2023
  • He is described as a white male, between 30 and 40 years old, with brown hair, blue eyes, and a facial piercing.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 7 June 2021
  • Rejection means that your body sees the piercing as a foreign object and tries to force it out.
    — Leah Campano, Seventeen, 3 Feb. 2023
  • The 9-year-old oozed cool, and with her mother's white-blonde look, both stood out with their beauty and fashion sense — and of course, choice of faux piercing.
    — Chelsea Avila, Allure, 7 July 2022
  • The service costs $35 to $55, depending on the type of piercing and jewelry.
    — Parija Kavilanz, CNN, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Right before the bang, there was a single piercing whistle.
    — Rebecca Tan, Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2021
  • The black is a fungus, called sooty mold, present due to the feeding of these or other piercing-sucking insects.
    — Tom MacCubbin, orlandosentinel.com, 24 Oct. 2020
  • Stepping through the gates and into the walled maze of Kotor’s Old Town is another piercing of the veil between past and present.
    — Meagan Drillinger, Travel + Leisure, 24 Feb. 2024
  • Sean had piercings in his nose and lower lip; Milton was missing some front teeth.
    — Abdi Nor Iftin, BostonGlobe.com, 23 May 2018
  • For those concerned that North may be growing up too fast, Kim clarified that the piercing was a fake.
    — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 July 2019
  • There are now two types of ammo, soft-target and armor-piercing.
    — Paul Tassi, Forbes, 7 Oct. 2021
  • But the piercing of the crypto bubble falls into the no-big-deal category of risks.
    — Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 20 May 2022
  • The Potoskys used their copy of X’s keys to open the door to his apartment and finally learned where the ear-piercing chirps were coming from.
    — Caroline Spivack, Curbed, 8 Dec. 2021
  • Of course, there are always risks involved when getting a piercing.
    — Leah Prinzivalli, Allure, 12 July 2022
  • Nipple piercings take longer than other body piercings to help.
    — Madeleine Burry, Health, 1 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'piercing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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