Word.ws English Dictionary

pencilwork

pencilwork noun: a task involving lots of writing.

Noun

pencilwork (uncountable)

  1. A task involving lots of writing.
    • Amateur astronomers needn't do a lot of mathematical pencilwork with this clear, all-plastic celestial globe.1948 November, “Globe Aids Star Study”, in Popular Science, page 243
    • To assess only one-third of the cost of a new administrative headquarters against a fund designed for administration and operations, while assessing two-thirds against another fund designed to buy and open new parks, takes some fancy pencilwork.1975 November, Griffin Smith, jr., “The Strange Case of the Missing Parks”, in Texas Monthly, page 136
  2. Drawings done with a pencil.
    • Mr. Prideaux Selby delights and excels in the glowing and splendid pencilwork of nature.1839 August/November, “Essays on Natural History, chiefly Ornithology [book review]”, in The Dublin Review, vol VII, page 184
    • Chief Windigo's map of Lake Nipigon, Ontario. […] ca. 1869, probably original Indian pencilwork on paper, enhanced in ink and blue wash, and with the addition of many names.1998, G. Malcolm Lewis, Maps, Mapmaking, and Map Use by Native North Americans [in:] The History of Cartography, Volume 2, Book 3: Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic...

Examples of pencilwork in a sentence

  • Engineers rely mostly on computer simulations and pencilwork for such forecasts.2007 December 3, Colin Nickerson, “The science of how buildings fall down”, in The Boston Globe:
  • […] contemporary artist Peggy Preheim, whose pencilwork, sculpture and photography reflect each other in engaging ways.2009 November 3, Laura Miller, “Glimpsing a Life Through a Few Objects”, in The Cornell Daily Sun, archived from the original on 31 Jan...

Origin of pencilwork

From pencil + work.

Questions about pencilwork

What does pencilwork mean?
Pencilwork means a task involving lots of writing.
How do you use pencilwork in a sentence?
Engineers rely mostly on computer simulations and pencilwork for such forecasts.
What part of speech is pencilwork?
Pencilwork is a noun.

Words near pencilwork in the dictionary

  1. pencils
  2. pencils in
  3. pencils out
  4. pencilslop
  5. pencilwood
  6. pencilwork
  7. pencioner
  8. pencioners
  9. Penclawdd
  10. Pencoed
  11. penconazole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pencilwork (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: “pencilwork.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pencilwork. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.