Meaning

(now chiefly historical) A paintbrush..

Definitions by Sense

1. (now chiefly historical) A paintbrush.
2. A writing utensil with a graphite (commonly referred to as lead) shaft, usually blended with clay, clad in wood, and sharpened to a taper.
3. (optics) An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.
4. (geometry) A family of geometric objects with a common property, such as the set of lines that pass through a given point in a projective plane.
5. (medicine, obsolete, rare) A small medicated bougie.
6. (zoology, formerly) A small, thin tuft of hairs or feathers.
7. (gambling) Ellipsis of power of the pencil.
8. (transitive) To write (something) using a pencil.

Example Sentences

But living art may not least part expresse, / Nor life-resembling pencill it can paynt[…].

why is it not lawfull for every man to pourtray himself with his pen, as it was for him to doe it with a pensell?

He requested three things of Sir Joshua Reynolds:—To forgive him thirty pounds which he had borrowed of him; to read the Bible; and never to use his pencil on a Sunday.

When, by the pencil becoming oblique to the surface, the vergency produced on the pencil becomes changed, the primary and secondary focal points, V and H, separate […]

A drillable robot is capable of placing its end link in any orientation in the pencil of planes containing its first link.

Let l and m be two hyperparallel lines. All the transversals to l and m that form congruent corresponding angles with l and m lie in a pencil.

It is almost entirely of a slatey colour, with yellow bill and feet, but the feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts each terminate in a rigid, glossy pencil or tuft of a vivid crimson.

And most important of all, Cully now had 'The Pencil', that most coveted of Las Vegas powers.

Word Forms

• pencils
• pensill
• penciling
• pencilling
• penciled
• pencilled

Synonyms for pencil

Related Words

When Should You Use Pencil?

Use pencil when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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