pen1
/pɛn
/noun
1An instrument for writing or drawing with ink, typically consisting of a metal nib or ball, or a nylon tip, fitted into a metal or plastic holder: figurative invective flowed from the journalists' pens...
- These include a cuddly toy, a ball, pens, pencils and paper, a toothbrush and toothpaste.
- His pastel drawings feel loose, reworked and found, and his pen and pencil drawings are precise and fresh.
- The desk was a little dusty in places and it housed a stationery holder containing three pens and a pencil, there were also several documents strewn across the desk.
1.1 (the pen) The occupation of writing: she was forced to support herself by the pen...
- It is expected that another publication will be coming from the pen of the author in the next few months.
- Some successful tenders have simply repeated the words of the customer's tender specification as though they had come from the pen of the researcher.
- These advantages were defended with corresponding vehemence, and less by the pen than by action.
1.2An electronic pen-like device used in conjunction with a writing surface to enter commands or data into a computer.Next, install the 6MB Mobile Desktop that is stored on your pen storage device....
- Users will input data using a pen like device writing on a pressure sensitive tablet.
- Of course, the variable widths only work in conjunction with a pressure-sensitive pen and digital tablet.
2 Zoology The tapering cartilaginous internal shell of a squid.It has no backbone, but rather a quill-like pen located beneath its mantle, or body....
- Once inside, students cut out the squid's lungs, stomach, ink sac, and pen.
verb (pens, penning, penned) [with object]
Write or compose: Olivia penned award-winning poetry...
- He has a penchant for writing and has penned a few hundred poems.
- And you dare not write off people who pen moaning letters to parish newsletters or local papers as cantankerous curmudgeons.
- But as any screenplay handbook will tell you, writing for motion pictures is not about penning lines of dialogue; it is about fashioning a narrative and constructing an event.
Phrases
pen and ink
the pen is mightier than the sword
put (or set) pen to paper
Origin
Middle English (originally denoting a feather with a sharpened quill): from Old French penne, from Latin penna 'feather' (in late Latin 'pen').
The earliest pens for writing were made from a feather with its quill sharpened and split to form a nib which was dipped in ink. The origin of pen reflects this, going back to Latin penna ‘feather’. The idea that the pen is mightier than the sword appeared in the works of the Latin author Cicero in the 2nd century bc. The origin of Old English pen in the sense of an animal enclosure is not known. See also panache, pin
Rhymes
pen2
/pɛn/noun
1A small enclosure in which sheep, pigs, or other farm animals are kept: a sheep pen...
- Along with the original small red house, the farm now has two barns, a sheep pen, and several sheds.
- The sheep pens are on display and all strawed up, but will remain empty for two days whilst the show goes on around.
- Then he moved on to sniff around the sheep where the lambing pen had been.
Synonyms
enclosure, fold, sheepfold, pound, compound, paddock, stockade, sty, coop, cage, stall, lock-up;
North American corral;
Scottish parrock;
South African kraal;
in South America potrero
1.1A number of animals in or sufficient to fill a pen: a pen of twenty-five Cheviots...
- Research teams were then randomly assigned to a pen of birds.
- He was helping The Boss put a pen of cattle through the scales before they were trucked out so that they could take out the ones that didn't make the contracted weight.
- Best price of the day went to the man from Lockton for a pen of hoggs at 121p/kilo.
1.2Any small enclosure in which someone or something can be confined: she took the baby out of the pen and played with it...
- Babies play in little pens or in safely confined areas on a blanket on the floor.
- Today most pigs are kept in confined pens, fed a strict diet, and are slaughtered before their eighth month.
- You may want to purchase some special items such as a dog carrier, a collar and leash, and perhaps a pen when confinement is necessary.
1.3A covered dock for a submarine or other warship: U-boat pens...
- Massive submarine pens were built near Bordeaux and the impact they had can be seen from the following figures.
- His main aim was a breakthrough to the coast of Belgium so that German submarine pens could be destroyed.
- The Allies could now bomb factories and submarine pens with great frequency and accuracy.
2(In the West Indies) a farm or plantation.A view bench is by an acreage of pheasant pens; structures made of netting, awaiting the season's cannon fodder....
- Track swings uphill by pheasant pens, 200 yards, left at T-junction to forest track, right fork at Y - junction and continue uphill.
- Those are pheasant pens in the background behind the plough.
verb (pens, penning, penned) [with object]
1Put or keep (an animal) in a pen: it was the practice to pen the sheep for clipping these cattle need to be penned in at night...
- To one side along the palisade stood crofts which held penned goats, cattle, and a few sheep.
- Now the goats weren't penned at the time but we figured with the two of us it would be no problem to grab them.
- The animals will be penned so that people can pat them and speak to Santa before a final high street parade at 1.45 pm.
Synonyms
confine, enclose, impound, shut in, fence in;
hurdle, rail in, coop (up), immure, mew up, box up/in, lock up/in, cage, imprison, intern, hold captive, incarcerate;
encircle, surround, ring, encompass, hem in, close in, hedge in, trap, kettle;
North American corral
1.1 (pen someone up/in) Confine someone in a restricted space: they had been penned up day and night in the house...
- There, unable to avoid the blows because they were penned in by the trap, the enemy would be crushed under the maces of the battlemothers.
- It is going to be very difficult for us and we will be penned in for periods.
- Scotland Yard said about 200 to 300 protesters were still in the Oxford Circus area, where they had been penned in by riot police for about seven hours.
Origin
Old English penn, of unknown origin.
pen3
/pɛn/noun
A female swan.The pen, or female swan, was visible on the nest, but there was no sign of her paramour....
- The two swans (a pen and a cob) have since brought seven baby cygnets into the world.
- There are ducks and cranes, and every few miles a cob and pen circle as only swans can in their own territory.
Origin
Mid 16th century: of unknown origin.
pen4
/pɛn/noun North American informal
Short for penitentiary (sense 1). you could get twenty years in a federal pen for shooting your mouth off like that...
- Two years later, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to nine months in the federal pen.
- You know, they bury guys alive out at the federal pen for stuff like that.
- It matters, but you really want to go to the heavy federal pen if you want street credibility.
PEN5
abbreviation
1International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists.
2Peruvian nuevo sol(es).