pencil out

English

Etymology

From pencil + out (possibly based on or influenced by work out), the idea being that rough calculations are temporarily written in pencil rather than permanently written in pen.

Verb

pencil out (third-person singular simple present pencils out, present participle (UK) pencilling out or (US) penciling out, simple past and past participle (UK) pencilled out or (US) penciled out)

1. (business) Of an investment, to make sense financially or to be expected to generate the desired returns
2. (business) To roughly calculate the expected returns of an investment