peen

Pluralpeens

Formspeens, peening, peened

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The end of a hammer's head opposite the main striking face, often rounded or spherical.

   The hammer's rounded peen flattened the rivet head neatly.

   She finished the seam by smoothing the metal with the peen.

   Note

   Workshop vocabulary with probable Scandinavian roots: the word likely comes from a North Germanic source, with relatives in dialectal Norwegian penn and German Pinne, both naming this same part of the hammer. The peen's profile names the tool, giving ball-peen, cross-peen and straight-peen hammers. Ball-peen hammer, common in metalworking, is the compound most readers will meet.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To shape metal by striking it repeatedly, especially with the rounded end of a hammer.

   He peened the soft copper until its surface was smooth and even.

   Workers peen the metal rim to strengthen it against wear.

   Similarhammer, beat, pound

   Note

   Old Swedish already had a verb, pæna, meaning "to pound iron with a hammer", so this verb shares the origin of the hammer's peen. It takes the metal as its object, as in peen a rivet or peen the rim. The -ing form also names the process: peening a surface puts it under compressive stress, which hardens it and makes it more resistant to fatigue and cracking.

3. 3
   nounslangcountable

   A slang word for the penis.

   He took a soccer ball straight to the peen and doubled over.

   The drunk guy flashed his peen at the crowd and got thrown out.

   Similarwilly, wiener, penis

   Note

   Clipped from penis and spelled peen so the short form keeps the long vowel of the original. Spelled pen, it would read as a different word. It belongs to joking talk, as in the 2012 parody Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, and suits banter rather than anatomy. Apart from sharing its spelling, it has nothing to do with the hammer's peen.

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