PENCIL

A small, fine brush of hair or bristles used by painters for laying on colors. With subtile pencil depainted was this storie. Chaucer.

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.

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

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

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

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

To write or mark with a pencil; to paint or to draw. Cowper. Where nature pencils butterflies on flowers. Harte.