Synonyms of drilling

drilling 1 of 2

verb (1)

present participle of drill

1

as in piercing

to make a hole or series of holes in

the nerve-jangling sound when a dentist drills a tooth

Synonyms & Similar Words

• piercing
• punching
• poking
• perforating
• puncturing
• tapping
• boring
• holing
• riddling
• cutting
• penetrating
• excavating
• broaching
• breaking
• splitting
• slashing
• pricking
• grooving
• gouging
• hollowing
• prickling
• slitting
• rupturing
• notching
• burrowing (into)
• rending
• gashing

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• filling
• sealing
• plugging
• patching

2

as in shooting

to strike with a missile from a gun

drilled the target from 100 yards away

Synonyms & Similar Words

• shooting
• plugging
• popping
• gunning
• killing
• destroying
• dropping
• slaughtering
• slaying
• bringing down
• picking off
• butchering
• firing (at)
• shooting down
• blowing away
• blazing
• peppering
• blasting (at)
• sniping (at)
• dispatching
• potshotting
• massacring
• felling
• decimating
• wiping out
• shotgunning
• pistoling
• annihilating
• blotting out
• machine-gunning
• icing
• doing in
• croaking
• tommy-gunning

drilling

2 of 2

verb (2)

present participle of drill

as in planting

to put or set into the ground to grow

he drills soybeans in the same rows with corn

Synonyms & Similar Words

• planting
• seeding
• putting in
• sowing
• replanting
• transplanting
• broadcasting
• bedding
• potting
• scattering
• reseeding
• overseeding

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• harvesting
• gathering
• reaping

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of drilling

Verb

Environmental advocates warn the rollback puts wildlife on a path to extinction and vow court challenges as Washington presses for more Pacific Coast drilling over West Coast states’ objections. — Jack Flemming, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2026

The process converts solid rock directly into vapor, allowing drilling to continue into geological formations that are too hot and abrasive for traditional equipment. — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 7 July 2026

The remains within the kurgans often showed signs of mummification or postmortem trepanation — drilling a hole in the skull to remove the brain. — Mindy Weisberger, CNN Money, 6 July 2026

Although the video does include a rig that involves drilling a mast beam (or thwart) into the canoe’s upper hull edge ( or gunwales), there is also a route that instead uses clamps. — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 2 July 2026

The goal scorer then took an artful first touch before drilling it home. — Andrew Greif, NBC news, 26 June 2026

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told CNBC on June 12, when the company went public, that SpaceX planned to build pipelines and process ​its own propellant, and was looking into drilling its own natural gas. — Eric Berger, ArsTechnica, 26 June 2026

The crisis was certainly good for oil companies, but the really booming corner of the business was trading, not drilling; European majors outshone their US competitors in first-quarter earnings because of their robust trading desks. — Tim McDonnell, semafor.com, 18 June 2026

About 25,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Los Angeles River on May 22 after construction crews damaged a 16-inch pipeline while drilling for a fiber optic line near Cesar Chavez and Eastern Avenues, according to AQMD. — Matthew Rodriguez, CBS News, 18 June 2026