number 2 pencil

English

Alternative forms

• № 2 pencil

Noun

number 2 pencil (plural number 2 pencils)

1. (US) A pencil which produces a specific shade of dark gray. One can usually identify a number 2 pencil by looking for the number "2" conspicuously emblazoned on the pencil. Often required for test-taking and the completion of official forms.
   • 1990, Allender Crabb, Lawrence J. Crabb, Larry Crabb, Dan B. Allender, Encouragement: The Key to Caring, page 30:

     I snapped to rigid attention when the teacher barked, "Clear your desks, get your number two pencils out, and get ready for your exam." Exam! What exam?

   • 2003, Trey Ellis, Platitudes: & the New Black Aesthetic, page 64:

     You shall not, I repeat, not, touch them with your finely sharpened number-two pencils or any other marking instrument until you are explicitly told to do so.

   • 2006, Barry H. Weinberg, The Resolution of Election Disputes: Legal Principles That Control Election, page 128:

     In using this system, absentee voters were instructed to mark their ballots with number two pencils. The optical scanner rejected ballots which were marked with instruments other than number two pencils.

   • 2006, Barbara Slater Stern, curriculum and teaching dialogue: V. 8, page 33:

     "Mrs. Landry, I forgot to bring my number two pencils! Does that mean I flunk this test?" Big tears filled Joey's eyes.

2. (US) A standard, ordinary pencil; one which is not colored or mechanical or in any other way unusual.
   • 1997, Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, page 1:

     How would that yellow number 2 pencil look as an ornament, inserted through a pierced ear-lobe or nasal septum?

   • 2002, Irv Furman, Amazing Irv's Handbook of Everyday Magic, page 78:

     Stand back as we attempt to capture and charm the most poisonous lead on your desk — the diamondback Number 2 pencil!

   • 2004, Kate White, 'Til Death Do Us Part, page 28:

     I do the actual writing on my computer, of course, but I find that jotting down notes with a number 2 pencil gets my brain working in a new way, helps me see the facts from a different angle.

Synonyms

• The European equivalent is an HB pencil