penknives

Noun

penknife (plural penknives)

1. A small pocketknife; (loosely) any pocketknife.
   • Limpet's penknife was on the table, and he snatched that up and commenced stabbing it into the cork, whether as a means of getting it out, or merely as a relief to his passion, it is difficult to say.1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 156
2. (dated) A small knife designed for safe and convenient storage, typically in the form of a miniature clasp-knife, or with blade retractable into the handle.
   • Presently the man took a reed pen from his satchel, and trimmed it with a little ivory knife, carved in the semblance of a fish. "Oh, what a beauty!" cried Dan. "'Ware fingers! That blade is perilous sharp. I made it myself of the best Low Country crossbow steel. And so, too, this fish. When his...1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill
3. (archaic) A small knife for cutting the points of quill feathers or reeds into nibs to provide or repair writing implements, early versions were commonly small sheath knives.
   • If a ſarcell, or other feathers be broken aboue the quyll, towards the poynt of yͤ fethers twoo or three fingers bredth, you muſt cut it off with a ſharpe penknife, aſlope, and (as they ſay) a ſwaſhe, ⁊ then take another feather to the ſame, cutting it in like manner, as you did the other, ſo as it...1575, George Turberuile [i.e.. George Turberville], “The Way and Manner, Howe to Ympe a Hawkes Feather, Howsoeuer It be Broken or Broosed”, in The Booke of Faulconrie or Hauking, for the Onely...

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