Word.ws English Dictionary

pencil-pusher

pencil-pusher is the alternative form of pencil pusher.

Meaning of pencil pusher

Noun

pencil pusher (plural pencil pushers)

  1. (derogatory, informal, often) One who does routine office work; someone involved mainly in paperwork.
    • “[…] I don't have her creative genius or her version. I'm a numbers man, like my father. A pencil pusher, as Amanda said.” With no balls, he added silently.2012, Danielle Steel, The Sins of the Mother, Random House, →ISBN, page 285

Forms of pencil-pusher

pluralpencil-pushers

Questions about pencil-pusher

What is pencil-pusher the alternative form of?
Pencil-pusher is the alternative form of pencil pusher.

Words near pencil-pusher in the dictionary

  1. pencil-neck
  2. pencil-necked
  3. pencil-necks
  4. pencil-post bed
  5. pencil-post beds
  6. pencil-pusher
  7. pencil-pushers
  8. pencil-sharpener
  9. pencil-sharpeners
  10. pencil-skirted
  11. pencil-thin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pencil-pusher (page history and authors); pencil pusher (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “pencil-pusher.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pencil-pusher. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.