Word.ws English Dictionary

penned up

penned up is the simple past and past participle of pen up.

Meaning of pen up

Verb

pen up (third-person singular simple present pens up, present participle penning up, simple past and past participle penned up or (archaic) pent up)

  1. (transitive) To enclose (animals) in a pen.
  2. (transitive) To enclose as if in a pen.
    • Pent up in Utica he vainly forms / A poor Epitome of Roman Greatneſs, / And, cover’d with Numidian Guards, directs / A feeble Army, and an empty Senate, / Remnants of mighty Battels fought in vain.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2

Questions about penned up

What is penned up the simple past and past participle of?
Penned up is the simple past and past participle of pen up.

Words near penned up in the dictionary

  1. penne rigate
  2. Pennebaker
  3. Pennebakers
  4. penned
  5. penned in
  6. penned up
  7. penneech
  8. Pennel
  9. Pennell
  10. Pennella
  11. Pennellas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penned up (page history and authors); pen up (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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