Definition of "transfix" [trans•fix]

• To pierce with or as if with a pointed weapon. (verb-transitive)
• To fix fast; impale. (verb-transitive)
• To render motionless, as with terror, amazement, or awe. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "His love of ideas and people were the epoxies that kept him glued to the rest of us, that made each one of us in his orbit feel special, that allowed him to shun the baubles and bangles that transfix so many."
• "Destined to become a classic, it will transfix audiences everywhere."
• "Artist Anne Harris has built her reputation as a painter of women who transfix their viewers with projections of uncomfortable and uncanny emotional states."