Definition of "penknife" [pen•knife]

• A small pocketknife. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But his penknife was a tiny thing, suitable for sharpening quills and cutting paper, not to doing battle with monstrous stone dogs."
• "But he had faithful servants; with the blood of his wound I wet my broadsword, called the penknife — you have surely heard of my penknife, famous at every diet, market, and village assembly — and swore to notch it on the shoulders of the"
• "Take instead a sabre such as befits a gentleman: now I lay at your feet this my penknife, which is the most precious thing that I possess in all the world."