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A penknife is a small knife whose blade — sometimes more than one — folds back into the handle so you can carry it in a pocket. It is a tool, not a weapon in ordinary talk: for cutting string, peeling fruit, opening a box. British English uses penknife a lot; American speakers often say pocketknife for the same thing. The name is a leftover. It was first a knife for a writing pen: trimming the tip of a quill, shaping a reed nib, and sometimes ink off the page. Nobody needs it for that now, but the small folding knife kept the name. A Swiss Army knife is a fancy relative with extra tools; a simple penknife may have only one blade. It is still a knife, so schools and airports treat it as something you must not bring.
摺疊小刀
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
penknifenoun
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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.
- The logical distinction between genus and species can, of course, apply to any objects whatsoever. Thus, for example, the genus knife may be divided into several species, such as penknife, table knife, bread knife, razor, etc. We might define the penknife as a knife small enough to be carried in the pocket, with foldable, sheathable elements, characterized by the feature that one blade at least is always suitable for sharpening pencils and erasing ink spots. We are quite sure in which features all the members of a certain species agree, notwithstanding possible individual characteristics, say a monogram on one penknife, or a corkscrew in another.
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datedA 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 back-fin travels to his tail—so—he swallows up the blade, even as the whale swallowed Gaffer Jonah."
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archaicA 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 may fitte with yͤ ſame feather, both for length and cutte.
- Every sin is damning without Christ. "The wages of sin is death". It is no great difference, if a man be killed, whether it be by a sword or a penknife. The least sin violates the whole law. He that offendeth in one point, is guilty of all.
penknifeverb
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To cut or carve with a penknife.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。