Pen·cil n.
 1. A small, fine brush of hair or bristles used by painters for laying on colors.
    With subtile pencil depainted was this storie.   --Chaucer.
 2. A slender cylinder or strip of black lead, graphite, colored chalk, slate etc., or such a cylinder or strip inserted in a small wooden rod intended to be pointed, or in a case, which forms a handle, -- used for drawing or writing. See Graphite.
 3. Hence, figuratively, an artist's ability or peculiar manner; also, in general, the act or occupation of the artist, descriptive writer, etc.
 4. Opt. An aggregate or collection of rays of light, especially when diverging from, or converging to, a point.
 5. Geom. A number of lines that intersect in one point, the point of intersection being called the pencil point.
 6. Med. A small medicated bougie.
 Pencil case, a holder for pencil lead.
 Pencil flower Bot., an American perennial leguminous herb (Stylosanthes elatior).
 Pencil lead, a slender rod of black lead, or the like, adapted for insertion in a holder.


 pencil lead
      n : mixture of graphite with clay in different degrees of
          hardness; the marking substance in a pencil [syn: lead]