Word.ws English Dictionary

lock and load

lock and load interjection: a command to prepare a weapon for battle.

Interjection

  1. (US, slang) A command to prepare a weapon for battle.
    • 1949 — John Wayne in the film Sands of Iwo Jima
      Lock and load, boy, lock and load.
  2. (US, slang) Prepare for an imminent event.

Verb

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

  1. (US, slang) To prepare one's weapon.
  2. (US, slang) To prepare for an imminent event.
    • It's great to know that city and town governments, all up and down the East Coast, were ready, locked and loaded, to provide bailouts, and this time it was the literal kind.2015, Fay Jacobs, Time Fries!: Aging Gracelessly in Rehoboth Beach, page 67

Forms of lock and load

third-person singular presentlocks and loads
present participlelocking and loading
past participlelocked and loaded
pastlocked and loaded

Origin of lock and load

Attested since at least 1793, when a document describes flintlock weapons that are ready to fire as "well locked and loaded". The variant "load(ed) and lock(ed)" is found since at least 1815. The phrase may have originated from the use of gunlocks on naval artillery (in use by the Royal Navy since 1745); as gunlocks were not required for firing (a lintstock could be used) it may have been necessary to specify cannon was "locked" as well as loaded. As an imperative, used since at least 1940, in the U.S. Army Field Manual for the M1 Rifle. Compare e.g. German "laden und sichern" ("load and secure"). Popularized in culture after being used by John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).

Questions about lock and load

What does lock and load mean?
Lock and load means a command to prepare a weapon for battle.
What part of speech is lock and load?
Lock and load can be an interjection or a verb.

Words near lock and load in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lock and load (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-lock and load.ogg.

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