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Transfix   /trænsfˈɪks/   Listen
Transfix

verb
(past & past part. transfixed; pres. part. transfixing)
1.
To render motionless, as with a fixed stare or by arousing terror or awe.  Synonyms: fascinate, grip, spellbind.
2.
Pierce with a sharp stake or point.  Synonyms: empale, impale, spike.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Transfix" Quotes from Famous Books



... enemies in their expectations—in proof of which he gave the following signs: "When I am just dead," says he, "open my breast and extract my heart. Carry it to some place where the public may see the result. You will then transfix it upon a long pole, and if Satan will have my soul, he will come in the likeness of a black raven and carry it off; and if my soul will be saved it will be carried ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends - Scotland • Anonymous

... formidable to an infantry square are Lancers. Their lances, which are from eleven to sixteen feet long, easily reach and transfix the infantry soldier, while the sabres of the other cavalry are too short to reach him over the horse's neck, and over the musket, lengthened by the bayonet. But Lancers are usually no match against other cavalry, who can parry ...
— A Treatise on the Tactical Use of the Three Arms: Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry • Francis J. Lippitt

... coils is death, its eyes transfix. Neither Mary nor Simon had spoken, and now, as the soldiery was upon them, they leaned yet nearer the wall. For a moment Mary hid her face. At her feet the Christ had fallen, and from her came one wail, choked down at once. ...
— Mary Magdalen • Edgar Saltus

... sweet Lord Jesu, transfix the affections of my inmost soul with that most joyous and most healthful wound of Thy love, with true, serene, most holy, apostolic charity; that my soul may ever languish and melt with entire love and longing for Thee. Let ...
— Autobiographical Sketches • Annie Besant

... who tarries not, But goes his way, whate'er to him appear, If of necessity the sting transfix him, ...
— Dante's Purgatory • Dante

... he squeezed himself into a front place, elaborately renovated; threw back his little coat, to show a broad-barred velvet waistcoat, sprinkled all over with stars; then adjusted himself and his cane so as utterly to bewilder and transfix the ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens

... whose "hoary head is a crown of glory," approaches his grave "like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me!" is the cry of a misspent life. If you have cast away a portion of your existence, I beg of you to transfix this public notice before your companions that they ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern

... courtier, the private detective withdrew from her presence, and for a moment the heiress stood as he had left her, gazing at the door through which he had disappeared, as if she were seeking to transfix an enemy with the angry fire of her eyes. Then she struck her hands together fiercely, and began a rapid march to and fro across ...
— The Diamond Coterie • Lawrence L. Lynch

... mumbled the dry bones of political economy; but you, sir, who sit trembling in that chair [laughter]—you are trying not to look it, but you are trembling with apprehension of the delicately anointed barb with which Madame Sarah. Grand will presently transfix you [laughter]; you must feel that we shall not very long be permitted even to mumble the barren ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O • Various

... as it seemed, to transfix me with his gaze. His unblinking eyes never for an instant quitted my face. With what a frightful fascination they constrained me,—and ...
— The Beetle - A Mystery • Richard Marsh

... a sense of humor, and later on, when he became an old hand, he used to think it fun to board a streetcar and see what happened. Now, however, he was too ill to notice it—how the people in the car began to gasp and sputter, to put their handkerchiefs to their noses, and transfix him with furious glances. Jurgis only knew that a man in front of him immediately got up and gave him a seat; and that half a minute later the two people on each side of him got up; and that in a full minute the crowded car was nearly empty—those passengers who could ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... me—Miss Howard, I beseech you, hear me! Am I not of your own blood and country? will you see me abandoned to the wild, merciless, malignant fury of this man, who will transfix me with that—oh, God! if you had but seen the sight I beheld in the Alacrity! —hear me. Miss Howard; for the love you bear your Maker, intercede for me! Mr. Griffith shall ...
— The Pilot • J. Fenimore Cooper

... party is select—very—on your account, you know—only Sir Roger Trajenna, Walraven's lawyer, Sardonyx, and myself. Now, when we're all assembled, discussing your absence, as I'll take care we shall be, and Oleander is telling lies by the yard, do you appear like a thunder-clap and transfix him. Guilt will be confounded, innocence triumphantly vindicated, the virtuous made happy, and the curtain will go down amid tremendous applause. Eh, how do you like the style ...
— The Unseen Bridgegroom - or, Wedded For a Week • May Agnes Fleming

... was in vain. The staircase was badly lighted, and Michael made a false, stumbling step. The next moment Mrs. Blake came out on the landing. The sight of the two men together seemed to transfix her with horror. ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... certain bodies, which by their own blows Enkindle its velocity. And, lo, It comes through objects leaving them unharmed, It goes through many things and leaves them whole, Because the liquid fire flieth along Athrough their pores. And much it does transfix, When these primordial atoms of the bolt Have fallen upon the atoms of these things Precisely where the intertwined atoms Are held together. And, further, easily Brass it unbinds and quickly fuseth gold, Because its force is so ...
— Of The Nature of Things • [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius

... of ice, sharp as a spear, and weighing a ton or more, was falling straight down on the prostrate man, as if to transfix him. ...
— The Young Treasure Hunter - or, Fred Stanley's Trip to Alaska • Frank V. Webster

... Warwick had to restrain his hand.[2148] That the English Constable of France should have raised his sword against a woman in chains would be incredible, did we not know that about this time this Earl of Stafford, hearing some one speak well of Jeanne, straightway wished to transfix him.[2149] ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France

... the gentle fires That Amathusia's smiling Queen2 inspires, Not seldom I derided Cupid's darts, And scorn'd his claim to rule all human hearts. Go, child, I said, transfix the tim'rous dove, An easy conquest suits an infant Love; Enslave the sparrow, for such prize shall be Sufficient triumph to a Chief like thee; Why aim thy idle arms at human kind? Thy shafts prevail not 'gainst the noble mind. 10 The Cyprian3 ...
— Poemata (William Cowper, trans.) • John Milton

... appropriately attired, for a day like this, in costumes that recall the picturesqueness, without the discomfort, of the old knightly harness. For an iron-headed lance we use a wooden substitute, with which we transfix rings instead of hearts; while our trusty blades hew their way through wooden blocks instead of through flesh and blood. It is a South Carolina renaissance which has points of advantage over the ...
— The House Behind the Cedars • Charles W. Chesnutt

... sternum, at L, Plate 1. But the apices of both lungs would be wounded if the same instrument entered deeply on either side of this median line at K K. An instrument which would pierce the sternum opposite the insertion of the second, third, or fourth costal cartilage, from H downwards, would transfix some part of the arch of the aorta, C, Plate 1. The same instrument, if pushed horizontally backward through the second, third, or fourth interspaces of the costal cartilages close to the sternum, would wound, on the right of the sternal ...
— Surgical Anatomy • Joseph Maclise



Words linked to "Transfix" :   thrust, pierce, pin, interest, spear



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