pen
verb/pen/
/pen/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they pen | /pen/ /pen/ |
| he / she / it pens | /penz/ /penz/ |
| past simple penned | /pend/ /pend/ |
| past participle penned | /pend/ /pend/ |
| -ing form penning | /ˈpenɪŋ/ /ˈpenɪŋ/ |
- pen something (formal) to write something
- He penned a letter to the local paper.
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- pen somebody/something (in/up) to shut an animal or a person in a small space
- At clipping time sheep need to be penned.
- The whole family were penned up in one room for a month.
Word Originverb sense 1 Middle English (originally denoting a feather with a sharpened quill): from Old French penne, from Latin penna ‘feather’ (in late Latin ‘pen’). verb sense 2 Old English penn, of unknown origin.
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