pencil whip
pencil whip verb: to approve a document without actually knowing or reviewing what it is that is being approved.
Verb
pencil whip (third-person singular simple present pencil whips, present participle pencil whipping, simple past and past participle pencil whipped)
- To approve a document without actually knowing or reviewing what it is that is being approved.
- To complete a form, record, or document without having performed the implied work or without supporting data or evidence.
- Knowing the auditors were coming in just a week, we chose to pencil whip the quarterly inventory forms for the last year.
- So, if you pencil-whipped that last survey, you've probably shot yourself in the foot, according to Stanley.1998, Airman, volume 42, page 26
Synonyms of pencil whip
Forms of pencil whip
| third-person singular present | pencil whips |
|---|---|
| present participle | pencil whipping |
| past participle | pencil whipped |
| past | pencil whipped |
Questions about pencil whip
- What does pencil whip mean?
- Pencil whip means to approve a document without actually knowing or reviewing what it is that is being approved.
- What part of speech is pencil whip?
- Pencil whip is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pencil whip?
- The past tense of pencil whip is pencil whipped.
Words near pencil whip in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pencil whip (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pencil whip.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pencil whip.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pencil_whip. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.