pend

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pɛnd/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• Homophone: penned
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /pɪnd/
  • Homophone: pinned
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Borrowed from Middle French pendre (“to hang”), from Late Latin pendĕre, from Latin pendēre.

pend (third-person singular simple present pends, present participle pending, simple past and past participle pended)

1. (obsolete) To hang down; to cause something to hang down [15th–19th c.]
2. (obsolete, Scotland) To arch over (something); to vault. [15th–18th c.]
3. (obsolete) To hang in reliance on; to depend (on or upon); to be contingent on.
   • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:

     pending upon certain powerful motives

pend (plural pends)

1. (Scotland) An archway; especially, a vaulted passageway leading through a tenement-style building from the main street, giving access to the rear of the building or an internal courtyard. [from 15th c.]

• See Thesaurus:alley

Compare pen (“to shut in”).

pend (third-person singular simple present pends, present participle pending, simple past and past participle pended)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To pen; to confine.
   • 1564, Nicholas Udall, Apophthegms, translation of original by Erasmus:

     soche frowarde creatures as many women are, ought rather to be pended vp in a cage of iron

Back-formation from pending.

pend (third-person singular simple present pends, present participle pending, simple past and past participle pended)

1. (transitive) To consider pending; to delay or postpone (something). [from 20th c.]
   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 817:

     The latest list of detainees would be pended and they would be allowed to return to their homes on a temporary basis.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

pend (uncountable)

1. (India) oil cake

• NDPE

• IPA^(key): /pɑ̃/

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pend

1. third-person singular present indicative of pendre

Akin to Italian pendere, from Latin.

pend

1. to hang

pend (plural pends)

1. An arch, vault.
2. A passageway between houses.

Clipping of pendejo.

pend m or f by sense (plural pends)

1. (slang) dumbass; retard; plonker