perforate
Americanverb (used with object)
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perforates,
present (3rd person singular)
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perforated,
past participle, past
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perforating
present participle
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to make a hole or holes through by boring, punching, piercing, or the like.
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to pierce through or to the interior of; penetrate.
verb (used without object)
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perforates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
perforated,
past participle, past
-
perforating
present participle
adjective
verb
-
to make a hole or holes in (something); penetrate
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(tr) to punch rows of holes between (stamps, coupons, etc) for ease of separation
adjective
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biology
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pierced by small holes
perforate shells
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marked with small transparent spots
-
-
philately another word for perforated
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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perforatornoun
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multiperforateadjective
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nonperforatingadjective
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perforableadjective
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perforativeadjective
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unperforableadjective
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unperforatingadjective
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unperforativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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perforatesimple
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perforatessimple
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have perforatedperfect
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has perforatedperfect
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am perforatingprogressive
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are perforatingprogressive
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is perforatingprogressive
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have been perforatingperfect progressive
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has been perforatingperfect progressive
Past
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perforatedsimple
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had perforatedperfect
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was perforatingprogressive
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were perforatingprogressive
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had been perforatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of perforate
1530–40; < Latin perforātus, past participle of perforāre to bore 2 through; see per-
Explanation
When you perforate something, you make a hole in it, like when you poke holes in a piece of aluminum foil to let steam escape while something is cooking. The word perforate has origins in the Latin word perforatus, the past participle of perforare, meaning “to bore through.” When you perforate something that’s essentially what you do: you bore through it, or punch a hole or holes in it like paper you perforate to fit the rings on your binder, or a leather belt that has been perforated with holes so that you can buckle it.
Vocabulary lists containing perforate
Born a Crime
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Chuck Berry (1926-2017) Tribute List
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The state has also been a major oil and gas producer for more than a century, and authorities are well aware some 35,000 old, inactive oil and gas wells perforate the landscape.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 31, 2022
Scopes can cause bleeding or even perforate the bowel, something that occurs in about one of every 2,500 procedures.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 18, 2021
Geometric cutouts perforate the restaurant’s facade, an allusion to Dogon architecture in Mali, repeated indoors and on the ceiling over a semi-enclosed back garden.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2018
The cytotrophoblast cells perforate the chorionic villi, burrow farther into the endometrium, and remodel maternal blood vessels to augment maternal blood flow surrounding the villi.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
In others the peripheral ends of the septa are united only by bars or trabeculae, so that the theca is perforate, and in many such perforate corals the septa themselves are pierced by numerous perforations.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
At its deepest point, the cut perforates about 3 inches into the tree’s trunk.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
Complications include chronic pain and mesh erosion, where the device cuts through tissue and perforates organs.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2022
Apollo 13 13: During Elon Musk’s maiden voyage, his ego becomes so big that it perforates the spaceship’s hull, necessitating a dangerous rescue.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 1, 2018
“Putting all this extra stitching in one place, however, actually perforates the fabric so I spread out the reinforcement stitching, forming an ‘X’ at each stress point.”
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2012
One perforates only a single row of holes at a time.
From What Philately Teaches A Lecture Delivered before the Section on Philately of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, February 24, 1899 by John N. Luff
Ioan, who broke both arms, and suffered a fractured rib and perforated bowel, said he wished his dad was still here to "watch me grow up and be my dad".
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
A sheet of perforated metal sits at a jaunty angle atop a trio of differently sized pillars, while a T-shaped bar rests above it, defying gravity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
I started doing research into really nerdy stuff, and the perforated walls you see in the dark corridors are shipping pallets.”
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2025
Most of it is extremely low-lying and perforated by tidal canals.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2025
Somewhere in the back of my mind is a dim memory of standing in some line holding a perforated card.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Her son, Hubertus von Hohenlohe, said she died after breaking her ribs and perforating her lungs in a domestic accident.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2024
The practice of perforating pipelines and storing oil in pools in the jungle is an environmental disaster, Reuters reported last year, after visiting clandestine refineries in Narino province.
From Reuters ● Jul. 27, 2023
While stationed in Liverpool as a Royal Air Force physical training instructor, a doodlebug landed near Max, perforating his eardrums and leading to a spell laid up in hospital.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2019
He said Essure carries some serious risks, such as perforating the uterus or Fallopian tubes if it is implanted improperly.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 21, 2015
Modernity, led by the automobile, was perforating the frontier.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
