Pemmican noun [ Written also pemican .]
1. Among the North American Indians, meat cut in thin slices, divested of fat, and dried in the sun.

Then on pemican they feasted.

Longfellow.

2. Meat, without the fat, cut in thin slices, dried in the sun, pounded, then mixed with melted fat and sometimes dried fruit, and compressed into cakes or in bags. It contains much nutriment in small compass, and is of great use in long voyages of exploration.

Pemmican noun A treatise of much thought in little compass.

Pemphigus noun [ Nl., from Greek ..., ..., a bubble.] (Medicine) A somewhat rare skin disease, characterized by the development of blebs upon different part of the body. Quain.

Pen noun [ Middle 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.

Job xix. 24.

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

5. (Zoology) The internal shell of a squid.

6. [ Etymol. uncertain.] (Zoology) A female swan. [ Prov. Eng.]

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 under 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. [ Obsolete] -- Pen name . See under Name . -- Sea pen (Zoology) , a pennatula. [ Usually written sea- pen .]

Pen transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Penned ; present participle & verbal noun Penning .] To write; to compose and commit to paper; to indite; to compose; as, to pen a sonnet. "A prayer elaborately penned ." Milton.

Pen noun [ 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.

Penal adjective [ Latin poenalis , from poena punishment: confer French pénal . See Pain .] Of or pertaining to punishment, to penalties, or to crimes and offenses; pertaining to criminal jurisprudence : as: (a) Enacting or threatening punishment; as, a penal statue; the penal code. (b) Incurring punishment; subject to a penalty; as, a penal act of offense. (c) Inflicted as punishment; used as a means of punishment; as, a penal colony or settlement. "Adamantine chains and penal fire." Milton.

Penal code (Law) , a code of laws concerning crimes and offenses and their punishment. -- Penal laws , Penal statutes (Law) , laws prohibited certain acts, and imposing penalties for committing them. -- Penal servitude , imprisonment with hard labor, in a prison, in lieu of transportation. [ Great Brit.] -- Penal suit , Penal action (Law) , a suit for penalties.

Penality noun [ Confer Late Latin poenalitas . See Penalty .] The quality or state of being penal; lability to punishment. Sir T. Browne.

Penalize transitive verb
1. To make penal.

2. (Sport.) To put a penalty on. See Penalty , 3. [ Eng.]

Penally adverb In a penal manner.

Penalty noun ; plural Penalties . [ French pénalité . See Penal .]
1. Penal retribution; punishment for crime or offense; the suffering in person or property which is annexed by law or judicial decision to the commission of a crime, offense, or trespass.

Death is the penalty imposed.

Milton.

2. The suffering, or the sum to be forfeited, to which a person subjects himself by covenant or agreement, in case of nonfulfillment of stipulations; forfeiture; fine.

The penalty and forfeit of my bond.

Shak.

3. A handicap. [ Sporting Cant]

» The term penalty is in law mostly applied to a pecuniary punishment.

Bill of pains and penalties . See under Bill . -- On , or Under , penalty of , on pain of; with exposure to the penalty of, in case of transgression.

Penance noun [ Old French penance , peneance , Latin paenitentia repentance. See Penitence .]
1. Repentance. [ Obsolete] Wyclif (Luke xv. 7).

2. Pain; sorrow; suffering. [ Obsolete] "Joy or penance he feeleth none." Chaucer.

3. (Eccl.) A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff- Herzog Encyc.

And bitter penance , with an iron whip.

Spenser.

Quoth he, "The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do."

Coleridge.

Penance transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Penanced .] To impose penance; to punish. "Some penanced lady elf." Keats.

Penanceless adjective Free from penance. [ R.]

Penang lawyer [ Prob. from Malay pīnang līar .] A kind of walking stick made from the stem of an East Asiatic palm ( Licuala acutifida ).

Penang nut [ From the native name.] (Botany) The betel nut. Balfour (Cyc. of India).

Penannular adjective [ Latin pene , paene , almost + English annular .] Nearly annular; having nearly the form of a ring. " Penannular relics." D. Wilson.

Penary adjective Penal. [ Obsolete] Gauden.

Penates noun plural [ Latin ] (Rom. Antiq.) The household gods of the ancient Romans. They presided over the home and the family hearth. See Lar .

Penaunt noun [ Old French penant , peneant . See Penitent .] A penitent. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Pence noun , plural of Penny . See Penny .

Pencel noun [ See Pennoncel .] A small, narrow flag or streamer borne at the top of a lance; -- called also pennoncel . [ Obsolete] Piers Plowman. Chaucer.

Penchant noun [ French, from pencher to bend, from (assumed) Late Latin pendicare , Latin pendere . See Pendant .] Inclination; decided taste; bias; as, a penchant for art.

Penchant noun (Card Playing) A game like bézique, or, in the game, any queen and jack of different suits held together.

Penchute noun See Penstock .

Pencil noun [ Old French pincel , French pinceau , Latin penicillum , penicillus , equiv. to peniculus , dim. of penis a tail. Confer Penicil .]
1. A small, fine brush of hair or bristles used by painters for laying on colors.

With subtile pencil depainted was this storie.

Chaucer.

2. A slender cylinder or strip of black lead, colored chalk, slate etc., or such a cylinder or strip inserted in a small wooden rod intended to be pointed, or in a case, which forms a handle, -- used for drawing or writing. See Graphite .

3. Hence, figuratively, an artist's ability or peculiar manner; also, in general, the act or occupation of the artist, descriptive writer, etc.

4. (Opt.) An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.

5. (Geom.) A number of lines that intersect in one point, the point of intersection being called the pencil point .

6. (Medicine) A small medicated bougie.

Pencil case , a holder for pencil lead. - - Pencil flower (Botany) , an American perennial leguminous herb ( Stylosanthes elatior ). -- Pencil lead , a slender rod of black lead, or the like, adapted for insertion in a holder.

Pencil transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Penciled or Pencilled ; present participle & verbal noun Penciling or Pencilling .] To write or mark with a pencil; to paint or to draw. Cowper.

Where nature pencils butterflies on flowers.

Harte.

Penciled adjective [ Written also pencilled .]
1. Painted, drawn, sketched, or marked with a pencil.

2. Radiated; having pencils of rays.

3. (Nat. Hist.) Marked with parallel or radiating lines.

Penciling noun [ Written also pencilling .]
1. The work of the pencil or bruch; as, delicate penciling in a picture.

2. (Brickwork) Lines of white or black paint drawn along a mortar joint in a brick wall. Knight.

Pencillate, Pencillated adjective Shaped like a pencil; penicillate.

Pencraft noun
1. Penmanship; skill in writing; chirography.

2. The art of composing or writing; authorship.

I would not give a groat for that person's knowledge in pencraft .

Sterne.

Pend noun Oil cake; penock. [ India]

Pend intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Pended ; present participle & verbal noun Pending .] [ Latin pendere .]
1. To hang; to depend. [ R.]

Pending upon certain powerful motions.

I. Taylor.

2. To be undecided, or in process of adjustment.

Pend transitive verb [ Confer pen to shut in, or Anglo-Saxon pyndan , English pound an inclosure.] To pen; to confine. [ R.]

ended within the limits . . . of Greece.

Udall.

Pendant noun [ French, orig. present participle of pendre to hang, Latin pendere . Confer Pendent , Pansy , Pensive , Poise , Ponder .]
1. Something which hangs or depends; something suspended; a hanging appendage, especially one of an ornamental character; as to a chandelier or an eardrop; also, an appendix or addition, as to a book.

Some hang upon the pendants of her ear.

Pope.

Many . . . have been pleased with this work and its pendant , the Tales and Popular Fictions.

Keightley.

2. (Architecture) A hanging ornament on roofs, ceilings, etc., much used in the later styles of Gothic architecture, where it is of stone, and an important part of the construction. There are imitations in plaster and wood, which are mere decorative features. "[ A bridge] with . . . pendants graven fair." Spenser.

3. (Fine Arts) One of a pair; a counterpart; as, one vase is the pendant to the other vase.

4. A pendulum. [ Obsolete] Sir K. Digby.

5. The stem and ring of a watch, by which it is suspended. [ U.S.] Knight.

Pendant post (Architecture) , a part of the framing of an open timber roof; a post set close against the wall, and resting upon a corbel or other solid support, and supporting the ends of a collar beam or any part of the roof.

Pendence noun [ See Pendent .] Slope; inclination. [ Obsolete] Sir H. Wotton.

Pendency noun
1. The quality or state of being pendent or suspended.

2. The quality or state of being undecided, or in continuance; suspense; as, the pendency of a suit. Ayliffe.

Pendent adjective [ Latin pendens , -entis , present participle of pendere to hang, to be suspended. Confer Pendant .]
1. Supported from above; suspended; depending; pendulous; hanging; as, a pendent leaf. "The pendent world." Shak.

Often their tresses, when shaken, with pendent icicles tinkle.

Longfellow.

2. Jutting over; projecting; overhanging. "A vapor sometime like a . . . pendent rock." Shak.

Pendentive noun [ French pendentif , from Latin pendere to hang.] (Architecture) (a) The portion of a vault by means of which the square space in the middle of a building is brought to an octagon or circle to receive a cupola. (b) The part of a groined vault which is supported by, and springs from, one pier or corbel.

Pendently adverb In a pendent manner.

Pendice noun [ Confer Pentice .] A sloping roof; a lean-to; a penthouse. [ Obsolete] Fairfax.

Pendicle noun [ Confer Appendicle .] An appendage; something dependent on another; an appurtenance; a pendant. Sir W. Scott.

Pendicler noun An inferior tenant; one who rents a pendicle or croft. [ Scot.] Jamieson.

Pending adjective [ Latin pendere to hang, to be suspended. Confer Pendent .] Not yet decided; in continuance; in suspense; as, a pending suit.

Pending preposition During; as, pending the trail.

Pendragon noun A chief leader or a king; a head; a dictator; -- a title assumed by the ancient British chiefs when called to lead other chiefs.

The dread Pendragon , Britain's king of kings.

Tennyson.

Pendular adjective Pendulous.

Pendulate intransitive verb To swing as a pendulum. [ R.]

Pendule noun [ French] A pendulum. [ R.] Evelyn.

Penduline noun [ French See Pendulum .] (Zoology) A European titmouse ( Parus, or Ægithalus, pendulinus ). It is noted for its elegant pendulous purselike nest, made of the down of willow trees and lined with feathers.