Pen /(pĕn)/

Pen

n.
  1. A feather. [Obs.]
  2. A wing. [Obs.]
  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.
    — Job xix. 24.
  4. Fig.: A writer, or his style; as, he has a sharp pen.
  5. The internal shell of a squid. (Zool.)
  6. A female swan; -- contrasted with cob, the male swan. (Zool.) [Prov. Eng.]

Phrases & Compounds
Bow pen
See Bow-pen.
Dotting pen
a pen for drawing dotted lines.
Drawing, [or] Ruling, pen
a pen for ruling lines having a pair of blades between which the ink is contained.
Fountain pen
See under Fountain, and Geometric.
Music pen
a pen having five points for drawing the five lines of the staff.
Pen and ink
executed or done with a pen and ink; as, a pen and ink sketch.
Pen feather
A pin feather.
Pen name
See under Name.
Sea pen
a pennatula.

Pen

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Penned; p. pr. & vb. n. Penning

  1. To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet.

Pen

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Penned; p. pr. & vb. n. Penning

  1. 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.
    Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve.

Pen

n.
  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]