PENKNIFE (penknives)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: penknives   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does penknife mean? 

• PENKNIFE (noun)
  The noun PENKNIFE has 1 sense:

1. a small pocketknife; originally used to cut quill pens

  Familiarity information: PENKNIFE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PENKNIFE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small pocketknife; originally used to cut quill pens

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("penknife" is a kind of...):

pocket knife; pocketknife (a knife with a blade that folds into the handle; suitable for carrying in the pocket)

 Context examples 

He took up the envelope and cut it with his penknife.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Do not you remember his cutting his finger with your new penknife, and your recommending court-plaister?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A litter of pipes, tobacco-pouches, syringes, penknives, revolver-cartridges, and other débris was scattered over it.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He tried to get in with the blade of a very small penknife.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Another stick of the penknife, when she pretended to pat my head: and that is because I said I did not like the society of children and old women (low be it spoken!).

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The poor man squalled terribly, and the colonel and his officers were in much pain, especially when they saw me take out my penknife: but I soon put them out of fear; for, looking mildly, and immediately cutting the strings he was bound with, I set him gently on the ground, and away he ran.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He continued with her the whole time of her writing, to assist her with his penknife or his orthography, as either were wanted; and added to these attentions, which she felt very much, a kindness to her brother which delighted her beyond all the rest.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And so, under pretence of softening the previous outrage, of stroking and soothing me into placidity, you stick a sly penknife under my ear!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)