Word.ws English Dictionary

lock-up

lock-up is the alternative form of lockup.

Meaning of lockup

Noun

lockup (countable and uncountable, plural lockups)

  1. (slang) A jail cell; a period of incarceration in such a cell; a facility containing such cells.
    • He's in lockup for 30 days for drunk and disorderly.
  2. (UK) A storage unit with a door secured by a padlock or deadbolt; a garage.
    • Joe keeps his other car in a lockup downtown.
  3. A condition in which one or more of a vehicle's wheels suddenly cease to rotate due to the application of excessive brake torque, causing the affected wheel(s) to skid.
  4. A condition where a system stops responding to inputs; a freeze.
    • Opcode $02 on the MOS 6502 causes a processor lockup if executed.
  5. (historical) A device for locking type into position for printing.
  6. (broadly) A fixed layout involving one or more logos and possibly related text.

See all 7 meanings of lockup

Forms of lock-up

plurallock-ups

Origin of lock-up

Deverbal from lock up.

Questions about lock-up

What is lock-up the alternative form of?
Lock-up is the alternative form of lockup.

Words near lock-up in the dictionary

  1. lock-picking
  2. lock-picks
  3. lock-step
  4. lock-time
  5. lock-times
  6. lock-up
  7. lock-ups
  8. lock-weir
  9. lock-weirs
  10. lockability
  11. lockable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lock-up (page history and authors); lockup (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.

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