pencil in

verb

penciled in or pencilled in; penciling in or pencilling in; pencils in

: to put (someone or something that may be changed later) on a schedule, list, etc.

Would you like me to pencil you in for Thursday morning at 11?

—sometimes used figuratively

He was penciled in as the director's replacement.

Examples of pencil in in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Still, a market where the priciest co-ops are selling faster while the priciest condos are stalling is not the market anyone penciled in this year. — John Walkup, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2026

Thorbjornsen's name has been penciled in, although he's been sneakily fantastic in his short PGA Tour career. — Mark Harris Outkick, FOXNews.com, 5 Aug. 2026

The first attempt, a 1974 plan for an Intercontinental Football League, with teams penciled in for Istanbul, Rome, Munich, West Berlin, Vienna, and Barcelona, folded before playing a single down. — Sam Birchall, Fortune, 4 Aug. 2026

Many of them pencilled in a rate hike for September, if not sooner. — John Cassidy, New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2026