▪ I. ˈpensy, a. Now Sc. and dial.
[f. OF. pensif, in nom. sing. and pl. pensis; cf. hasty, jolly, tardy.]
1. = pensive.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 2990 With princez in hys palays all pensey [v.r. pense] he sittes. c 1440 Alph. Tales 80 Or he passyd any forther or made ane ende, he began to wax hevy & pensie for þis thoght. 1831 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. xxix. (1856) III. 177 It's an inspirin retreat..for the inditin o' a bit cheerfu' or pensie sang! 1876 Whitehead Daft Davie, etc. 270 Her that was now so quiet and pensy. |
2. a. Giving oneself airs, self-conceited. b. Spruce, neat.
| 1715 Ramsay Christ's Kirk Gr. ii. ix, Furth started neist a pensy blade. a 1806 in Jamieson's Pop. Ball. I. 292 There, couthie, and pensie, and sicker, Wonn'd honest young Hab o' the Heuch. 1830 J. M{supc}Diarmid Sk. Nat., Jeanie Deans 382 Many of the neighbours regarded her [Helen Walker] as ‘a little pensy body’—that is, conceited or proud. |
3. a. Fretful, peevish (of children). b. Fastidious (of appetite).
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Pensy, fretful; uneasy. Chiefly applied to wayward children. 1866 N. & Q. 3rd Ser. X. 67/1 Another person, speaking of a little dog that has been much petted, says ‘he is so pensy, he will not touch new milk’. 1893 in Cozens-Hardy Broad Norfolk 99 She is a poor ‘pensey little thing’. |
▪ II. pensy, pensyful, pensyl, -syll
obs. ff. pansy, pensiful, pencil, pencel.