Meanings
plural pencil skirts
- A slim skirt (clothing) with a straight and narrow cut, usually approximately knee-length.
Anna decided to wear a black pencil skirt with her blue blouse that day to work.
2 more examples
And for Italian sportswear giant MaxMara, the cornerstone of the show was a crisp khaki safari jacket shown over a pencil skirt.
2004 November 1, Kate Betts, “Into the Wild”, in TimeFor a long while I said any girl could get through round one of MasterChef simply by turning up in a pencil skirt and making a fried Nutella sandwich with condensed milk and an expression that says, "I like older men with no hair".
2011 February 12, Grace Dent, The Guardian
Origin
From pencil + skirt, referring to its shape.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian тясна пола
- тясна пола (tjasna pola)very narrow skirt
Catalan faldilla de llapis
- faldilla de llapisvery narrow skirt
Chinese Mandarin 鉛筆裙 /铅笔裙
- 鉛筆裙 /铅笔裙 (qiānbǐqún)very narrow skirt
Dutch kokerrok, potloodrok
- kokerrokvery narrow skirt
- potloodrokvery narrow skirt
French jupe-crayon
- jupe-crayonvery narrow skirt
German Bleistiftrock
- Bleistiftrockvery narrow skirt
Portuguese saia lápis, saia tubo
- saia lápisvery narrow skirt
- saia tubovery narrow skirt
Spanish falda de tubo, falda lápiz
- falda de tubovery narrow skirt
- falda lápizvery narrow skirt
- pollera tubovery narrow skirt
Swedish pennkjol
- pennkjolvery narrow skirt
Cite this entry
pencil skirt. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pencil%20skirt
“pencil skirt.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pencil%20skirt. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pencil skirt,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pencil%20skirt.
Source: pencil skirt on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.