Pen (?), n. [OE. penne, OF. penne, pene, F. penne, fr. L. penna.]
1.
A feather.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
2.
A wing.
[Obs.]
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.
Job xix. 24.
4.
Fig.: A writer, or his style; as, he has a sharp pen.
"Those learned
pens."
Fuller.
5. Zool.
The internal shell of a squid.
6. [Etymol. uncertain.] Zool.
A female swan.
[Prov. Eng.]<-- contrast cob, the male swan -->
Bow pen. See Bow-pen. -- Dotting pen, a pen for drawing dotted lines. -- Drawing, ∨ Ruling, pen, a pen for ruling lines having a pair of blades between which the ink is contained. -- Fountain pen, Geometric pen. See under Fountain, and Geometric. -- Music pen, a pen having five points for drawing the five lines of the staff. -- Pen and ink, ∨ pen-and-ink, executed or done with a pen and ink; as, a pen and ink sketch. -- Pen feather. A pin feather. [Obs.] -- Pen name. See under Name. -- Sea pen Zool., a pennatula. [Usually written [sea-pen[.]
© Webster 1913.
Pen, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Penned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Penning (?).]
To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet.
"A prayer elaborately
penned."
Milton.
© Webster 1913.
Pen, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Penned (?) or Pent (); p. pr. & vb. n. Penning.] [OE. pennen, AS. 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."
Shak.
Watching where shepherds pen their flocks at eve.
Milton.
© Webster 1913.
Pen, n. [From Pen to shut in.]
A small inclosure; as, a pen for sheep or for pigs.
My father stole two geese out of a pen.
Shak.
© Webster 1913.