pen

A small tool that uses ink to write or draw.

• Can I borrow your pen?
• She signed the form with a blue pen.
• These pens have run out of ink.

Common phrases: ballpoint pen, pen and paper, fountain pen

A small area surrounded by a fence where animals are kept.

• The pigs are in their pen.
• He built a new pen for the sheep.
• Close the gate so the animals stay in the pen.

Similar words: enclosure

Common phrases: pig pen, sheep pen, cattle pen

A prison where people are kept after being found guilty of serious crimes.

• He spent five years in the pen.
• She was sent to the state pen.
• They met while serving time in the pen.

Similar words: prison, penitentiary

Common phrases: in the pen, federal pen, state pen

A writer, or the way someone writes.

• She has a sharp pen.
• The magazine attracted some of the finest pens of its time.
• These stories came from the pen of a young teacher.

Common phrases: a sharp pen, a gifted pen, from the pen

To write a letter, story, song, or other piece of text.

• She penned a short letter.
• He has penned several songs for the band.
• The article was penned during her stay abroad.

Similar words: write, compose

Common phrases: pen a letter, pen a novel, pen a song, pen an article

To put animals in an area surrounded by a fence.

• We penned the sheep before sunset.
• The cattle were penned near the barn.
• She penned up the pigs while the fence was repaired.

How to use it: pen someone/something in/up (The farmer penned the sheep up before dark.)

Similar words: enclose, confine

Opposites: release

Common phrases: pen up sheep, pen cattle, pen an animal

To keep someone in a small area that they cannot easily leave.

• The crowd was penned in behind barriers.
• Tall buildings penned us in on every side.
• She felt penned in by the narrow walls.

How to use it: be penned in (We were penned in by parked cars.)

Similar words: trap, confine, hem in

Opposites: release, free

Common phrases: pen someone in, pen in something