pen

plural pens

1. An enclosure (enclosed area) used to contain domesticated animals, especially sheep or cattle.

   There are two steers in the third pen.

2. slangA penitentiary, i.e. a state or federal prison for convicted felons.

   They caught him with a stolen horse, and he wound up in the pen again.

   1 more example

   Officer Krupke, you've done it againǃ / This boy don't need a judge, he needs a year in the penǃ / It ain't just a question of misunderstood / Deep down inside him, he's no goodǃ

   1957, Stephen Sondheim, “Gee, Officer Krupke”, in West Side Story

3. ball gamesThe bullpen.

   Two righties are up in the pen.

present singular third person pens · participle present penning · participle past penned · past penned · participle past pent · past pent

1. transitiveTo enclose in a pen.

   Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve.

   1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

plural pens

1. A tool, originally made from a feather but now usually a small tubular instrument, containing ink used to write or make marks.

   He took notes with a pen.

   2 more examples

   another novel from the pen of everybody's fave thriller writer.

   Please use a pen, not a pencil, when filling out this form. Use black or blue ink only.

2. figurativelyA writer, or their style.

   He has a sharp pen.

   1 more example

   those learned pens

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

3. colloquialMarks of ink left by a pen.

   He's unhappy because he got pen on his new shirt.

4. A light pen.
5. biologyThe internal cartilage skeleton of a squid, shaped like a pen.

   A pen is nothing more complex than a decalcified shell, so one mutation of the genes that controlled calcification could be all it took.

   2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 117

6. archaicdialectalpoeticA feather, especially one of the flight feathers of a bird, angel etc.

   And eke the pennes, that did his pineons bynd, Were like mayne-yards, with flying canuas lynd, With which whenas him liſt the ayre to beat […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

7. poeticA wing.

   but feather'd soon and fledge They summed their pens, and soaring the air sublime

   1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

8. A syringe-like device for injecting a dose of medication such as insulin or epinephrine. (See Injector pen.)

   1 more example

   "I'm sure she had more than one EpiPen […]" "But she didn't have one when she got stung or she'd have used it." By all appearances, Mariah died in the woods, […] If she managed to grab the pen found under her leg from her bag or pocket, she never discharged it. But Crystal doesn't have these details. "Doesn't it make sense that she kept an extra pen in her cupboard, and one in her bag? The extra pen fell out, is all."

   2023 August 29, Geri Krotow, A Wasp in the Woods, Tule Publishing, →ISBN

9. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of vapor pen (“electronic cigarette”).

   a dab pen; a wax pen

present singular third person pens · participle present penning · participle past penned · past penned

1. transitiveTo write (an article, a book, etc.).

   It was in this era, too, that author and Scotland the Brave songwriter Cliff Hanley penned The Glasgow Underground, a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the Subway in song.

   2021 December 29, Conrad Landin, “Glasgow Subway: a city institution”, in RAIL, number 947, page 45

   2 more examples

   Prying open the crate, you discover a carefully wrapped, handwritten copy of one of Matriarch Dilinaga's treatises. It is unlikely she penned it herself, but the flowing brushwork and intricate watercolor illustrations clearly show the hand of a master scribe.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Nonuel

   His two most recent films are last year's Greyhound, a Hanks-penned World War Two thriller in which he plays a naval commander, and now News of the World, a Western set in the years immediately following the close of the US Civil War, directed by Paul Greengrass, which is premiering around the world on Netflix tomorrow.

   2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC

2. transitiveuncommonTo write or draw on (a surface) with a pen.

   I penned up the walls with obscenities

   1973 May 5, Lou Sullivan, Diary

   1 more example

   Beside it, another wooden table with a guestbook penned with names and addresses.

   2014, L. K. Scott, Nightmare Eve

plural pens

1. A female swan.

   Synonyms: swaness

plural pens

1. slangball gamesPenalty.

   England won 3–1 on pens.

plural pens

1. informalcomputingPenetration.

1. humorouspluraluncountableplural of pan

plural PENs

1. abbreviationcountableuncountablechemistryAbbreviation of polyethylene naphthalate.
2. abbreviationcountableuncountablespeed skatingAbbreviation of penalty (a scorecard score when a skater is penalized out of their skate).

1. A diminutive of the female given name Penelope.

   "Listen, Pen. We are here for the duration. You have to let her in a bit."

   2020, Stayce Whelden Richardson, Christmas Work, page 53

1. The 68th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.