pensile

American  

[pen-sahyl, -sil] / ˈpɛn saɪl, -sɪl /

adjective

1. hanging, as the nests of certain birds.

2. building a hanging nest.

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pensile British  

/ ˈpɛnsaɪl /

adjective

1. ornithol designating or building a hanging nest

   pensile birds

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Other Word Forms

• pensility
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of pensile

1595–1605; < Latin pēnsilis hanging down, equivalent to pēns ( us ) past participle of pendēre to hang (equivalent to pend- verb stem + -tus past participle suffix, with dt > s ) + -ilis -ile

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pensile

There was also a weeping willow close by, whose pensile tresses of new verdure touched the half-broken walls of earth underneath.

From Japanese Literature Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical Poetry and Drama of Japan by Epiphanius Wilson

The nest was pensile, like that of the Baltimore Oriole.

From Birds, Illustrated by Color Photography, Vol. 1, No. 2 February, 1897 by Various

Like the others, it builds a long pensile nest of similar material and suspended from the extremities of limbs near the ground The five to seven eggs are pure white.

From The Bird Book Illustrating in natural colors more than seven hundred North American birds; also several hundred photographs of their nests and eggs. by Chester A. (Chester Albert) Reed

The moon shone down, but the shadows deep Of the pensile flowers, were hushed in sleep.

From Poems by Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold) Goodrich

Adj. pendent, pendulous; pensile; hanging &c. v.; beetling, jutting over, overhanging, projecting; dependent; suspended &c. v.; loose, flowing. having a peduncle &c. n.; pedunculate†, tailed, caudate.

From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Peter Mark Roget

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