Pen
Pen (pen) , noun
[Old English penne, Old French penne, pene, French penne, from Latin penna.]
1.
A feather. [Obsolete] — Spenser
2.
A wing. [Obsolete] — Milton
3.
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.
4.
Figuratively: A writer, or his style; as, he has a sharp pen.
Those learned pens.
5.
(Zoology) The internal shell of a squid.
6.
(Zoology) A female swan; -- contrasted with cob, the male swan. [Provincial English]
Collocations (9)
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.
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. [Obsolete]
Pen name , See under Name.
Sea pen (Zoology) , a pennatula.
Pen , transitive verb
To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet.
A prayer elaborately penned.
Pen , transitive verb
[Old English pennen, Anglo-Saxon pennan in on-pennan to unfasten, prob. from the same source as pin, and orig. meaning, to fasten with a peg.See Pin, n. & v.]
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.
Pen , noun
[From Pen to shut in.]
1.
A small inclosure; as, a pen for sheep or for pigs.
My father stole two geese out of a pen.
2.
A penitentiary[6]; a prison. [Slang]