pencil

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   graphite (or a similar substance) used in such a way as to be a medium of communication

   the words were scribbled in pencil

2. 2
   verb

   to write, draw, or trace with a pencil

   They penciled a figure in their sketchbook.

3. 3
   noun

   A paintbrush.

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

4. 4
   noun

   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.

   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 […]

5. 5
   noun

   A small, thin tuft of hairs or feathers.

   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.

6. 6
   noun

   Ellipsis of power of the pencil.

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

7. 7
   verb

   To write (something) using a pencil.

   I penciled (BrE: pencilled) a brief reminder in my notebook.

8. 8
   verb

   To mark with, or as if with, a pencil.

   It pencilled each flower with rich and variegated hues, and threw over its exuberant foliage a vesture of emerald green.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman and Old French pincil (see the variant pincel, which gave rise to Modern French pinceau (“paintbrush”)), from Latin pēnicillum, diminutive of pēniculus (“brush”), itself a diminutive of pēnis (“tail; penis”). Not related to pen.