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Penetrate vs Puncture - What's the difference?

penetrate | puncture |

As verbs the difference between penetrate and puncture

is that penetrate is to enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce while puncture is to pierce; to break through; to tear a hole.

As a noun puncture is

the act or an instance of puncturing.

penetrate

English

(Penetration)

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)

    • Derived terms

    * penetration * penetrable

    External links

    * * * ----

    puncture

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act or an instance of puncturing.
  • * 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
    • A tough test for even the strongest climber, it was new to the Tour de France this year, but its debut will be remembered for the wrong reasons after one of those spectators scattered carpet tacks on the road and induced around 30 punctures among the group of riders including Bradley Wiggins, the Tour's overall leader, and his chief rivals.
  • A hole, cut, or tear created by a sharp object.
  • * 2001 , , Dutton, ISBN 0525946284, page 340,
    • Dieter's car had suffered a puncture on the RN3 road between Paris and Meaux. A bent nail was stuck in the tire.
  • * Rambler
    • A lion may perish by the puncture of an asp.

    Synonyms

    * flat tyre; (informal US) flat

    Derived terms

    * puncturer

    Verb

  • To pierce; to break through; to tear a hole.
    • The needle punctured the balloon instantly.

    Derived terms

    * aquapuncture * electropuncture * laserpuncture * punctured interval * punctured neighborhood