Penknife
['pennaɪf] or ['pɛnnaɪf]
Definition
(noun.) a small pocketknife; originally used to cut quill pens.
Typed by Gwendolyn--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A small pocketknife; formerly, a knife used for making and mending quill pens.
Editor: Ricky
Definition
n. a small knife originally for making and mending quill pens.
Checker: Ramona
Examples
- On the ledge at the side, were an empty laudanum-bottle and a tortoise-shell handled penknife--soiled, but not with ink. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Why should I, when I believe the bite innocuous as a cut of this penknife? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- He tried to get in with the blade of a very small penknife. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- He laid the washing-book on the table, and taking out his penknife, began to trim his nails. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Sergeant Cuff finished the nail on which he was then at work, looked at it for a moment with a melancholy interest, and put up his penknife. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- You may cut the piece out with your penknife if you like, Tom. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- The philosophical owner of the universal penknife growled an affirmative. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- He looked at me and the spaniel while we shared the spoil; he put up his penknife. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- If I ask for any, it will be 'Le Cheval Dompté,' said Moore, trimming with his penknife the pencil Miss Keeldar had worn to a stump. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- And so, under pretence of softening the previous outrage, of stroking and soothing me into placidity, you stick a sly penknife under my ear! Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- He has blunted the blade of his penknife and broken the point off by sticking that instrument into his desk in every direction. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Do not you remember his cutting his finger with your new penknife, and your recommending court-plaister? Jane Austen. Emma.
- While on this voyage the conception of a revolving pistol came to him, and he whittled out a rude model of one with a penknife from a piece of wood. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The Jews with the fifty-bladed penknives shut them up in despair; the men with the pocket-books made pocket-books of them. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- The best scissors, penknives, razors and lancets are made of cast steel. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
Checker: Walter