pencilwork en · NOUN
Etymology
From pencil + work.
Meanings
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(uncountable) A task involving lots of writing.
Engineers rely mostly on computer simulations and pencilwork for such forecasts.
2007 December 3, Colin Nickerson, “The science of how buildings fall down”, in The Boston Globe:Amateur astronomers needn't do a lot of mathematical pencilwork with this clear, all-plastic celestial globe.
1948 November, “Globe Aids Star Study”, in Popular Science, page 243:To assess only one-third of the cost of a new administrative headquarters against a fund designed for administration and operations, while assessing two-thirds against another fund designed to buy and open new parks, takes some fancy pencilwork.
1975 November, Griffin Smith, jr., “The Strange Case of the Missing Parks”, in Texas Monthly, page 136:
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(uncountable) Drawings done with a pencil.
Chief Windigo's map of Lake Nipigon, Ontario. […] ca. 1869, probably original Indian pencilwork on paper, enhanced in ink and blue wash, and with the addition of many names.
1998, G. Malcolm Lewis, Maps, Mapmaking, and Map Use by Native North Americans [in:] The History of Cartography, Volume 2, Book 3: Cartography in the Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 154:Mr. Prideaux Selby delights and excels in the glowing and splendid pencilwork of nature.
1839 August/November, “Essays on Natural History, chiefly Ornithology [book review]”, in The Dublin Review, vol VII, page 184:[…] contemporary artist Peggy Preheim, whose pencilwork, sculpture and photography reflect each other in engaging ways.
2009 November 3, Laura Miller, “Glimpsing a Life Through a Few Objects”, in The Cornell Daily Sun, archived from the original on 31 Jan 2010: