Pencil

Definition of Pencil

Pen´cil

A small, fine brush of hair or bristles used by painters for laying on colors.

With subtile pencil depainted was this storie.

- Chaucer.

A slender cylinder or strip of black lead, graphite, colored chalk, slate etc., or such a cylinder or strip inserted in a small wooden rod intended to be pointed, or in a case, which forms a handle, - used for drawing or writing. See Graphite.

Hence, figuratively, an artist's ability or peculiar manner; also, in general, the act or occupation of the artist, descriptive writer, etc.

(Opt.) An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.

(Geom.) A number of lines that intersect in one point, the point of intersection being called the pencil point.

(Med.) A small medicated bougie.

Pencil case
a holder for pencil lead.

Pencil flower
(Bot.) an American perennial leguminous herb (Stylosanthes elatior).

Pencil lead
a slender rod of black lead, or the like, adapted for insertion in a holder.

v. t.

To write or mark with a pencil; to paint or to draw.

[imp. & p. p. Penciled or Pencilled; p. pr. & vb. n. Penciling or Pencilling.]

Where nature pencils butterflies on flowers.

- Harte.

pencil in

to write (a tentative appoinment) on an appointment calendar, so as to reserve time, but to allow the appointment to be readily canceled and replaced with another; - also used figuratively, with other means of recording appointments. The notion being that something written in pencil can be more easily changed than something written in ink. The phrase is commonly used in the early stages of organizing a meeting of multiple persons, before it is known whether all attendees will be free at the suggested time.

Related Words

X ray, actinic ray, actinism, air brush, art paper, atomic beam, atomic ray, beam, beam of light, blaze, blaze a trail, blemish, blotch, brand, brush, camera lucida, camera obscura, canvas, cartoon, chalk, chalk up, charcoal, check, check off, cicatrize, color, copy, copy out, crayon, crosshatch, dapple, dash, dash off, daub, define, delimit, delineate, demarcate, depict, design, diagram, discolor, doodle, dot, draft, draw, draw up, drawing paper, drawing pencil, drier, easel, edit, enface, engrave, engross, fixative, fleck, freckle, gamma ray, gash, genre, gleam, ground, hatch, impress, imprint, infrared ray, inscribe, invisible radiation, lay figure, leam, limn, line, lines, make a mark, make a recension, make out, mark, mark off, mark out, maulstick, medium, mottle, movement, nick, notch, paint, paint a picture, paintbrush, palette, palette knife, pastel, patch, pen, pepper, photon, picture, picturize, pigments, point, portray, prick, print, punch, punctuate, puncture, push the pen, put in writing, radiation, radiorays, ray, ray of light, recense, record, revise, rewrite, ribbon, ribbon of light, riddle, scar, scarify, school, score, scotch, scratch, scratchboard, scribe, scrive, scroll, scumble, seal, seam, shade, siccative, sketch, sketchbook, sketchpad, solar rays, spatula, speck, speckle, spill ink, splotch, spoil paper, spot, spray gun, stain, stamp, stencil, stigmatize, streak, stream, stream of light, streamer, striate, stripe, stump, style, superscribe, tattoo, the grand style, tick, tick off, tint, trace, transcribe, type, ultraviolet ray, underline, underscore, varnish, violet ray, write, write down, write out

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