Word.ws English Dictionary

perforate

perforate verb: IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈpɜː.fə.ɹeɪt/.

Verb (1)

  1. (Received-Pronunciation) IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈpɜː.fə.ɹeɪt/
  2. (General-American) IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈpɝ.fɚ.eɪt/
  3. Audio (US): (file)

Adjective (1)

  1. (Received-Pronunciation) IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈpɜː.fə.ɹət/
  2. (General-American) IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈpɝ.fɚ.ət/

Verb (2)

perforate (third-person singular simple present perforates, present participle perforating, simple past and past participle perforated)

  1. (transitive) To pierce; to penetrate.
  2. (transitive) To make a line of holes in (a thin material) to allow separation at the line.
    • to perforate a sheet of postage stamps
    Synonyms:
    hole

Adjective (2)

perforate (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Perforated.
    • An Earthen Pot perforate at the Bottom to let in the Plant.1626, Francis Bacon, Sylua Syluarum
  2. (obsolete) Perforated, having a hole.
    • Suche abuses can not be longe hydde frome princis, that haue their eares perforate (as is the prouerbe).1541, Thomas Elyot, Image of Governance
  3. Perforated.
    • A species of remarkable appearance with mature leaf laminae often so profoundly perforate as to resemble a fragile net of tissue.1999, Nguyen Van Dzu, Peter C. Boyce, Kew Bulletin, 54(2):379-393

perforate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

perforate in Tamil

துளையிடு, நுண்டுளையாக்குதல்

perforate in Urdu

چھیدنا, پھوڑنا

perforate in Bengali

ছিদ্র করা, ফুটো করা

perforate in Malayalam

തുളയ്ക്കുക, തുരക്കുക, ചെറുദ്വാരമിടുക, കിഴിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
perforate in Kannada
ತೂತುಕೊರೆ, ತೂತುಮಾಡು, ಕಂಡಿಮಾಡು

Synonyms of perforate

Forms of perforate

third-person singular presentperforates
present participleperforating
past participleperforated
pastperforated

Past tense of perforate: perforated

Origin of perforate

The adjective is first attested in 1425, in Middle English, the verb in 1538; from Middle English perforat(e) (“perforated, pierced”), borrowed from Latin perforātus, the perfect passive participle of perforō (“to bore or pierce through, to perforate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from per- (“through, thorough”) + forō (“to bore, pierce”). Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

Words formed from perforate

Questions about perforate

What does perforate mean?
Perforate means IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /ˈpɜː.fə.ɹeɪt/.
What is perforate in Tamil?
Perforate in Tamil is துளையிடு, நுண்டுளையாக்குதல். See Perforate meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is perforate?
Perforate can be a verb or an adjective.
What is the past tense of perforate?
The past tense of perforate is perforated.

Words near perforate in the dictionary

  1. perforans
  2. perforant
  3. perforantes
  4. perforasome
  5. perforasomes
  6. perforate
  7. perforated
  8. perforately
  9. perforates
  10. perforati
  11. perforating

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: perforate (page history and authors); perforate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perforate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Perforate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perforate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perforate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “perforate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perforate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.