Word.ws English Dictionary

pent up

Syllables: pent·up/ˌpɛntˈʌp/

pent up is the alternative form of pent-up.

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

Meaning of pent-up

Adjective

pent-up (comparative more pent-up, superlative most pent-up)

  1. Not expressed.
    • I remember, particularly, how, in his speech here, he referred to what his family had suffered in Kansas, without ever giving the least vent to his pent-up fire.1859, Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown
  2. Repressed or suppressed, especially of emotions or impulses.
    • He punched his pillow and screamed at the top of his lungs about all the pent-up frustrations from the day.

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

Forms of pent up

comparativemore pent up
superlativemost pent up

Words that rhyme with pent up

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pent up

What is pent up the alternative form of?
Pent up is the alternative form of pent-up.
How do you pronounce pent up?
Pent up is pronounced /ˌpɛntˈʌp/.

Words near pent up in the dictionary

  1. pensée
  2. pensées
  3. pent
  4. pent roof
  5. pent roofs
  6. pent up
  7. pent-
  8. pent-house
  9. pent-houses
  10. pent-up
  11. Penta

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pent up (page history and authors); pent-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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-pent up.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-pent up.wav.

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