online medical dictionary | definition of pen

1. A feather.

2. A wing.

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. A writer, or his style; as, he has a sharp pen. "Those learned pens."

5. <zoology> The internal shell of a squid.

6. [Etymol. Uncertain.

<zoology> A female swan. 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, Geometric pen. See Fountain, and Geometric. 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. Pen name. See Name.

<zoology> Sea pen, a pennatula. [Usually written sea-pen.

Origin: OE. Penne, OF. Penne, pene, F. Penne, fr. L. Penna.

(01 Mar 1998)