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

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pensile

One day I was taken by a native to the centre of a brush, where a gigantic cotton-tree standing alone was hung with about fifty of the large pensile nests of this species.

From Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition. — Volume 1 by John MacGillivray

Every year of his life has he seen the beautiful Hang-Bird weave his pensile habitation upon the long and flexible branches of the Elm, secure from the reach of every living creature.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 35, September, 1860 by Various

These are in great part perpendicular, and are over clambered with airy stairways climbing to pensile arbors.

From Italian Journeys by William Dean Howells

The books are ranged all round the room on open shelves, with a communication to those of the upper row by a pensile gallery that surrounds the whole periphery.

From The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 by Various

The spines of the Pinus Maritima are longer than those of the Pinus Lariccio, and the branches more pensile.

From Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. by Thomas Forester