transfix
Americanverb (used with object)
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transfixes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
transfixed,
past participle, past
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transfixt,
past participle, past
-
transfixing
present participle
verb
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to render motionless, esp with horror or shock
-
to impale or fix with a sharp weapon or other device
-
med to cut through (a limb or other organ), as in amputation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
transfixsimple
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transfixessimple
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have transfixedperfect
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have transfixtperfect
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has transfixedperfect
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has transfixtperfect
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am transfixingprogressive
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are transfixingprogressive
-
is transfixingprogressive
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have been transfixingperfect progressive
-
has been transfixingperfect progressive
Past
-
transfixedsimple
-
transfixtsimple
-
had transfixedperfect
-
had transfixtperfect
-
was transfixingprogressive
-
were transfixingprogressive
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had been transfixingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of transfix
1580–90; < Latin trānsfīxus (past participle of trānsfīgere to pierce through), equivalent to trāns- trans- + fīg ( ere ) to pierce + -sus, variant of -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
Use the verb transfix when something makes you freeze in fascination or fear. Your belly dancing moves might transfix your dance recital audience. You might describe the way the last minutes of a scary movie transfix your whole family, leaving them on the edge of their seats, or how the photographs in a gallery transfix you with their beauty. The word comes from transfixus, "impaled" in Latin, which in turn is rooted in trans, "through or across," and figere, "to fasten."
Vocabulary lists containing transfix
Power Prefix: trans-
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Things Fall Apart
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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:
Director Andrew Russell trusts Porkalob’s ability to transfix an audience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
The addition of more rules and formalized elements, some borrowed from figure skating, crowded Olympic ballet skiers into an uncomfortable box, spawning the technically impressive but artistically stunted routines that now transfix online audiences.
From New York Times ● Feb. 11, 2022
He studies Beard’s practice with that kind of fascination that shows how a puzzle such as basketball can transfix some human brains forever.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2021
A sign of her charisma is that during the final tableau, as Aida and Radamès are expiring in the tomb, Amneris continues to transfix the attention: even when she isn’t singing, she dominates the stage.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 4, 2018
The changing patterns of light transfix my sight.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
This Eden is enhanced by the birth of a son, Elio, whose beauty transfixes all who see him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Odenkirk's dramatic breadth transfixes the viewer wherever he turns up.
From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2023
And, at the end of the day, a sport that both transfixes and repels did both again.
From New York Times ● May 1, 2021
It transfixes, not with artifice or cheap sentiment, but with a strange alchemy of gloom and light.
From Washington Post ● May 21, 2018
The flashing of white, pink, and green briefly transfixes me.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
Block described staring up at the gallery wall, transfixed by the horror.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Dozens of men and boys stood transfixed as they watched Belgium play Egypt -- a much-anticipated fixture for Palestinian football fans eager to witness the prowess of their idol, Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
The saga has transfixed Germans since it began, and has left islanders on Anholt bemused by the continued interest.
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
Murdaugh’s six-week trial in small-town Walterboro, S.C., became a global phenomenon as viewers were transfixed by the crumbling of a generations-old South Carolina family dynasty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
His eyes were fixed on something and his legs vibrated and stopped, his hands did the same, and then finally his fingers, but his eyes remained open, transfixed on the top of the forest.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
From being transfixt by such a jibe Maupassant was preserved by Flaubert.
From Inquiries and Opinions by Brander Matthews
Had I but once transfixt thy froward breast, How would’st thou then——I staid not for the rest; But thus half angry to the boy replide: How would’st thou then my soul of sense bereave!
From Democritus Platonissans by Henry More
Therefore we'll parry with cloak what shafts thou shootest against us; And by our bolts transfixt, penalty due thou shalt pay.
From The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus by Sir Richard Francis Burton
In one, noting Kurtág’s affinity to Samuel Beckett, Pintscher led a transfixing performance of Morton Feldman’s “For Samuel Beckett” holding an audience prisoner for 50 minutes within a chord that won’t go away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Who impressed, and who has the most to do after a transfixing opening weekend of the Six Nations?
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2026
A powerful politician’s night of triumph descends precipitously into waking-nightmare territory in the transfixing “Oedipus,” an adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy from the British writer-director Robert Icke.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 14, 2025
“Macbeth” may be Shakespeare’s most transfixing tragedy, but its dark magic often fizzles in the theater.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2025
She made them out to be business cards, evidently momentoes of passing knights of the road who had amused themselves by sailing their credentials heavenward, each with a transfixing pin.
From Kildares of Storm by Eleanor Mercein Kelly
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.
