puncture

English

Etymology

From Late Latin punctūra.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌŋktʃə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpʌŋkt͡ʃɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: punc‧ture

Noun

puncture (plural punctures)

1. The act or an instance of puncturing.
2. A hole, cut, or tear created by a sharp object.

   There were two small punctures in his arm where the snake's fangs had pierced the skin.

   • 1752 January 23 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. 190. Sunday, January 12. 1752.”, in The Rambler, volume VIII, Edinburgh: […] Sands, Murray, and Cochran; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair, […], published 1752, →OCLC, page 44:

     The lion may perish by the puncture of an asp.

3. (specifically) A hole in a vehicle's tyre, causing the tyre to deflate.

   Synonyms: (US) flat tire, (US, informal) flat, (UK) flat tyre

   On the way back we got a puncture, and we were stuck at the roadside for three hours until help arrived.

   • 2001, Ken Follett, Jackdaws, Dutton, →ISBN, 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.

   • 2012 July 15, Richard Williams, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track‎^[1], Guardian Unlimited:

     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.

Derived terms

• acupuncture
• antipuncture
• apipuncture
• aquapuncture
• arteriopuncture
• cardiopuncture
• colorpuncture
• counterpuncture
• cryopuncture
• electropuncture
• encephalopuncture
• galvanopuncture
• laserpuncture
• lumbar puncture
• macropuncture
• mesopuncture
• micropuncture
• multipuncture
• pharmacopuncture
• postpuncture
• puncturable
• puncturation
• punctureless
• punctureproof
• puncture vine
• puncture-wallah
• renipuncture
• repuncture
• sonopuncture
• vacupuncture
• venipuncture

 

Translations

hole, cut or tear

• Arabic: ثُقْب m (ṯuqb)

  Hijazi Arabic: ثُقْب m (ṯugb), فَتْحَة m (fatḥa), خُرق m (ḵurg)

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: пробив (bg) m (probiv), дупчица (bg) f (dupčica)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戳破 (zh) (chuōpò), 刺孔 (cìkǒng)

• Esperanto: trui
• Finnish: reikä (fi); (in a tyre) rengasrikko
• French: piqûre (fr), perforation (fr) f, crevaison (fr) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Einstich (de) m, Reifenpanne (de) f (flat tyre)
• Hebrew: תקר (he) m (teker), נקר (he) m (neker)
• Hungarian: szúrás (hu), lyukasztás (hu), felszúrás, lyuk (hu)
• Indonesian: tusukan
• Italian: puntura (it)
• Japanese: 刺すこと (ja) (さすこと, sasu koto), パンク (ja) (panku) (esp. flat tyre)
• Khmer: ការចាក់ (kaacak)
• Latin: pūnctūra f
• Malayalam: ഊട്ട (ml) (ūṭṭa)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: punctura (pt) f, perfuração (pt) f
• Russian: проко́л (ru) m (prokól)
• Scottish Gaelic: toll m
• Spanish: pinchazo
• Swahili: panchari (sw)
• Swedish: punktera (sv), sticka hål (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Verb

puncture (third-person singular simple present punctures, present participle puncturing, simple past and past participle punctured)

1. To pierce; to break through; to tear a hole.

   The needle punctured the balloon instantly.

   • 2013, clipping. (lyrics and music), “story”, in midcity‎^[2]:

     The couple all bloody / Tongues punctured by each other's teeth / Died and didn't let go

2. To destroy the vitality or strength of.
   • 2024 October 23, Jacob Oller, “Clay weepy Memoir Of A Snail crawls through a gauntlet of misery”, in AV Club‎^[3]:

     The woebegone children have their aspirations slowly snuffed. Grace’s artistic dreams (of animation, of course) are punctured by her isolated existence; Gilbert’s pyrophilia is smothered by religious extremism.

Derived terms

• puncturer
• punctured interval
• punctured neighborhood

Translations

to pierce — see also pierce

• Bulgarian: пробождам (bg) (proboždam), пробивам (bg) (probivam)
• Catalan: perforar (ca)
• Dutch: puncteren (nl)
• Finnish: puhkaista (fi)
• French: perforer (fr)
• Galician: furar (gl), esfuracar, perforar (gl)
• German: durchstechen (de), punktieren (de)
• Hungarian: kilyukaszt (hu), kilyukad (hu), felszúr (hu)
• Latin: pungō
• Maori: tioka, tīokaoka (repeatedly), paoka, poka, wero, oka
• Nanai: локпа- (lokpa-)
• Russian: прока́лывать (ru) impf (prokályvatʹ), проколо́ть (ru) pf (prokolótʹ)
• Santali: ᱨᱳᱜ (rok’)
• Spanish: perforar (es), ponchar (Latin America), puncionar (es), punzar (es), pinchar (es), punchar (es), horadar (es), horacar
• Swedish: punktera (sv), sticka hål på
• Tamil: குத்து (ta) (kuttu)

Latin

Participle

pūnctūre

1. vocative masculine singular of pūnctūrus