PEN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pen

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/pɛn/ Listen

noun

Pen n.

A feather. (Obs.)

A wing. (Obs.)

An instrument used for writing with ink, formerly made of a reed, or of the quill of a goose or other bird, but now also of other materials, as of steel, gold, etc. Also, originally, a stylus or other instrument for scratching or graving. "Graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock."

Fig.: A writer, or his style; as, he has a sharp pen. "Those learned pens."

(Zool.) The internal shell of a squid.

(Zool.) A female swan; contrasted with cob, the male swan. (Prov. Eng.)

Bow pen. See Bow-pen.

Dotting pen, a pen for drawing dotted lines.

Drawing pen, or Ruling pen, a pen for ruling lines having a pair of blades between which the ink is contained.

Fountain pen, Geometric pen. See under Fountain, and Geometric.

Music pen, a pen having five points for drawing the five lines of the staff.

Pen and ink, or pen-and-ink, executed or done with a pen and ink; as, a pen and ink sketch.

Pen feather. A pin feather. (Obs.)

Pen name. See under Name.

Sea pen (Zool.), a pennatula. (Usually written sea-pen)

Pen n.

A small inclosure; as, a pen for sheep or for pigs. "My father stole two geese out of a pen."

A penitentiary(6); a prison. (Slang)

verb

Pen v. t. (past & past part. penned; pres. part. penning) To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet. "A prayer elaborately penned."

Pen v. t. (past & past part. penned or pent; pres. part. penning) To shut up, as in a pen or cage; to confine in a small inclosure or narrow space; to coop up, or shut in; to inclose. "Away with her, and pen her up." "Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve."

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Etymology of 'Pen'

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Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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