pencil pusher

noun

, Informal.

1. a person, as a clerk or bookkeeper, whose work involves a considerable amount of writing, record-keeping, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pencil pusher¹

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85

Example Sentences

“I’m a pencil pusher,” he told us, stretching out the cup of pencils in his hand in front of him again, like that would make it make more sense.

From Literature

The hiring is mostly focused on pencil pushers, and even the increased enforcement is focused on the richest Americans.

From Salon

Villanelle, an elegant assassin excelled in her profession by being invisible; Eve's invisibility as a pencil pusher at MI5 made it easy for her peers to ignore her.

From Salon

She once again began at an entry-level position, as a “pencil pusher,” she said, before slowly carving out an expertise in Arab-Israeli relations.

From Washington Post

“I was the pencil pusher, doing a lot of research. My state of the art tools were a slide rule and a Frieden computer. We were taking the theoretical and making it real.”

From The Verge