Word.ws English Dictionary

lock

UK/lɒk//lɑk/

lock noun: something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.

lock: something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination
Image: Alyson Hurt from Alexandria, Va., USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

lock (plural locks)

  1. Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.
    • "Give me the key," said my mother; and though the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
    • We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and commenced to putter with the lock.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  2. (broadly) A mutex or other token restricting access to a resource.
    • [T]he application must first acquire a lock on a file or a portion of a file before reading data and modifying it.2005, Karl Kopper, The Linux Enterprise Cluster
  3. A segment of a canal or other navigable waterway enclosed by gates, used for raising and lowering boats between levels.
    • Here the canal came to a check, ending abruptly with a large lock.1846, William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo
  4. The firing mechanism in a gun.
    • "I never saw such a gun in my life," replied poor Winkle, looking at the lock, as if that would do any good.1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC
  5. Complete control over a situation.
    • Even though he had not yet done so, Jack felt he had a lock on the game.2003, Charley Rosen, The Wizard of Odds
  6. Something sure to be a success.
    • Brian thinks she's a lock to get a scholarship somewhere.2004, Avery Corman, A perfect divorce
  7. Synonym of Dutch book.
    Synonyms:
    Dutch book
  8. A player in the scrum behind the front row, usually the tallest members of the team.
    • Ashton only had to wait three minutes for his second try, lock Louis Deacon setting it up with a rollocking line-break, before Romania got on the scoreboard courtesy of a penalty from fly-half Marin Danut Dumbrava.2011 September 24, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania”, in BBC Sport
  9. A fastening together or interlacing; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable.
    • [O]n may of his lecture days I have seen all Albemarle Street closed by a "lock" of carriages, filled with women of distinction, until the servants of the Institution or their own footmen advanced to the carriage-doors with the intelligence that Mr. Coleridge had been suddenly taken ill.1834 September–November; 1835 January, Thomas De Quincey, “Samuel Taylor Coleridge”, in Autobiographic Sketches: With Recollections of the Lakes (De Quincey’s Works; II), London: James Hogg & Sons...
  10. A place impossible to get out of, as by a lock.
    • Sergestus, eager with his beak to press / Betwixt the rival galley and the rock, / Shuts up the unwieldy Centaur in the lock1697, Virgil, “The Fifth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  11. A device for keeping a wheel from turning.
  12. A grapple in wrestling.
    • They must be also practis'd in all the Locks and Gripes of Wrestling[1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London]: […] [Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC

Verb (1)

lock (third-person singular simple present locks, present participle locking, simple past locked, past participle locked or (obsolete) locken)

  1. (intransitive) To become fastened in place.
    • If you put the brakes on too hard, the wheels will lock.
    • We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and commenced to putter with the lock.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  2. (transitive) To fasten with a lock.
    • Remember to lock the door when you leave.
    Antonyms:
    unlock
  3. (intransitive) To be capable of becoming fastened in place.
    • This door locks with a key.
    Antonyms:
    unlock
  4. (transitive) To intertwine or dovetail.
    • with his hands locked behind his back
    • We locked arms and stepped out into the night.
  5. (intransitive, break dancing) To freeze one's body or a part thereof in place.
    • a pop and lock routine
  6. To furnish (a canal) with locks.
  7. To raise or lower (a boat) in a lock.
  8. To seize (e.g. the sword arm of an antagonist) by turning one's left arm around it, to disarm them.
  9. (Internet, transitive) To modify (a thread) so that users cannot make new posts in it.
  10. (Internet, transitive, wiki jargon) To prevent a page from being edited by other users.
    • Frequently-vandalized pages are generally locked to prevent further damage.
  11. (intransitive) To play in the position of lock.
    • Please don't disappoint me - you are female, aren't you? I have a lingering suspicion that you are 17 stone and lock for Tarankai.1980, Ken Berry, chapter 14, in First Offender, Auckland: Collins, page 117

Noun (2)

lock (plural locks)

  1. A tuft or length of hair, wool, etc.
    • Baſſ. […]Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth,
      For the foure windes blow in from euery coaſt
      Renowned ſutors, and her ſunny locks
      Hang on her temples like a golden fleece,
      Which makes her ſeat of Belmont Cholchos-'| ſtrond,
      And many Iaſons come in queſt of her.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • If I consent to burn them, will you promise faithfully neither to send nor receive a letter again, nor a book (for I perceive you have sent him books), nor locks of hair, nor rings, nor playthings?1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC
  2. A small quantity of straw etc.
  3. (historical, Scots law) A quantity of meal, the perquisite of a mill-servant.

Noun (3)

lock (plural locks)

  1. A single dreadlock.

Verb (2)

lock (third-person singular simple present locks, present participle locking, simple past and past participle locked)

  1. To form a dreadlock.

Proper noun capitalized: Lock

Lock

  1. A surname.
  2. An unincorporated community in Knox County and Licking County, Ohio, United States.
  3. A town in Elliston district council area, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia; from the surname.

lock meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

lock in Hindi

something used for fastening
ताला tālā
to fasten with a lock
ताला लगाना tālā lagānā

lock in Tamil

something used for fastening
பூட்டு pūṭṭu
to fasten with a lock
பூட்டு pūṭṭu
to intertwine or dovetail
கோர் kōr, பின்னு piṉṉu
length of hair
கொத்து kottu, சுருள் curuḷ, குலை kulai

lock in Marathi

something used for fastening
कुलूप kulūp

lock in Urdu

something used for fastening
تالا tālā
More languagesFewer languages
lock in Bengali
তালা tala
lock in Telugu
తాళము tāḷamu, కురులు kurulu
lock in Malayalam
താഴ് tāḻŭ, പൂട്ട് pūṭṭŭ
lock in Kannada
ಬೀಗ bīga
lock in Punjabi
تالا tāḷā, ਤਾਲ਼ਾ tāḷā, زلف zulf, کنڈی kunḍī
lock in Gujarati
તાળું tāḷũ
lock in Odia
ତାଲା tālā
lock in Sanskrit
ताल tāla, तालक tālaka, मुद्रा mudrā
lock in Assamese
তলা tola
lock in Nepali
ताल्चा tālcā
lock in Tagalog
kandado
lock in Arabic
قُفْل qufl, أَقْفَلَ ʔaqfala, هَوِّيس hawwīs, ذُؤَابَة ḏuʔāba
lock in Malay
ibu kunci, pintu air
lock in Indonesian
kunci, pintu air
lock in Persian
قفل کردن qofl kardan
lock in Thai
กุญแจ gun-jɛɛ, ประแจ bprà-jɛɛ, ล็อก lɔ́k, แม่กุญแจ mɛ̂ɛ-gun-jɛɛ
lock in Vietnamese
khóa, ổ khóa, khoá
lock in Myanmar
သော့ sau., သော့ခတ် sau.hkat, ဆံခွေ hcamhkwe
Sindhi
تالو tālo

Examples of lock in a sentence

  • He's very security-conscious, so he would have remembered to lock the door.
  • He had the same problem as she did getting the lock open.
  • We puzzled over the curious-shaped lock, but were unable to discover how the key should be inserted.

All 40 example sentences with lock

Synonyms of lock

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of lock

Forms of lock

Noun
plurallocks
Verb
third-person singular presentlocks
present participlelocking
pastlocked
past participlelocked
past participle (obsolete)locken

Past tense of lock: locked

Plural of lock: locks

Origin of lock

From Middle English lok, from Old English loc, from Proto-West Germanic *lok, from Proto-Germanic *luką from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend; turn”). Cognate with Cimbrian loch, lòch (“hole”), Dutch lok (“hole”), German Loch (“hole”), German Low German Lock (“hole”), Luxembourgish Lach (“hole”), Vilamovian łöch (“hole”), Yiddish לאָך (lokh, “hole”), Danish låg (“lid, cover”), Norwegian Bokmål lokk (“lid, cover”), Norwegian Nynorsk lok, lokk (“lid, cover”). more detail The verb is from Middle English locken, lokken, louken, from Old English lūcan, Proto-West Germanic *lūkan, from Proto-Germanic *lūkaną. Cognate with Dutch luiken (“to close, to shut”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål lukke (“to close, to shut”), Faroese lúka (“to end, to finish”), Icelandic ljúka (“to close, to shut”), Norwegian Nynorsk lukka (“to close, to shut”). Related to luxe via Latin.

From Middle English lok, lokke, from Old English locc (“hair of the head, hair, lock of hair, curl, ringlet”), from Proto-West Germanic *lokk, from Proto-Germanic *lukkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lugnó-, from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend”). Cognate with Alemannic German lokha (“hair”), Dutch lok (“lock of hair, curl”), German Locke (“lock of hair, curl”), Danish lok (“lock of hair, curl”), Faroese, Icelandic lokkur (“lock of hair, curl”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk lokk (“lock of hair, curl”), Swedish lock (“lock of hair, curl”). It has been theorised that the word may be related to the Gothic verb *𐌻𐌿𐌺𐌰𐌽 (*lukan, “to shut”) in its ancient meaning "to curb".

Ellipsis of dreadlock

Words formed from lock

Phrases with lock

90 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with lock

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lock

What does lock mean?
Lock means something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.
What is lock in Hindi?
Lock in Hindi is ताला (tālā), ताला लगाना (tālā lagānā). See Lock meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is lock?
Lock can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce lock?
Lock is pronounced /lɒk/ (UK).
What is the plural of lock?
The plural of lock is locks.

Words near lock in the dictionary

  1. locie
  2. locies
  3. locin
  4. locing
  5. locis
  6. lock
  7. lock and load
  8. lock away
  9. lock convoy
  10. lock convoys
  11. lock down

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lock (page history and authors); Lock (page history and authors); താഴ് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಬೀಗ (Kannada) (page history and authors); تالا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ताल (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); তলা (Assamese) (page history and authors); ताल्चा (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lock.ogg.

Cite this entry: “lock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.