zerstechen
German, verb
zerstechen is spelled Z-E-R-S-T-E-C-H-E-N (10 letters) and appears about once in every 12 million words in written German, the 192,441st most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Zerstechen is a German verb meaning “to pierce; to make unusable by piercing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). With a capital, Zerstechen is a different word: “gerund of zerstechen”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “etwas durch Stiche mit einem spitzen Gegenstand beschädigen oder zerstören”.
What does zerstechen mean in English?
verb
- 1
to pierce; to make unusable by piercing
Autoreifen zerstechen
- 2
to prick all over
von den Mücken zerstochen
noun
- 1
neutergerund of zerstechen
Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How German dictionaries define it
verb: 1. etwas durch Stiche mit einem spitzen Gegenstand beschädigen oder zerstören 2. jemandem mit etwas Spitzem Verletzungen beibringen 3. jemanden sehr oft stechen
The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.
Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of zerstechen
- zersticht present singular third-person
- zerstach past
- zerstochen participle past
- zerstäche past subjunctive
- haben auxiliary
- 4 strong
- zerstechend participle present
- zersteche first-person indicative present
- zerstichst indicative present second-person
- zerstecht indicative plural present
- zerstechest second-person singular subjunctive
- zerstechet plural second-person subjunctive
- zerstachen first-person indicative plural
- zerstächen first-person formal plural
- zerstachst indicative preterite second-person
- zerstacht indicative plural preterite
- zerstächest formal rare second-person
- zerstächst formal rare second-person
Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How common is zerstechen in German?
zerstechen appears about once in every 12 million words in written German.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).