sherlock
Syllables: Sher·lock/ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/
sherlock is the alternative letter-case form of Sherlock.
Proper noun capitalized: Sherlock
Sherlock (plural Sherlocks)
- An English surname transferred from the nickname.
- A male given name transferred from the surname, of rare usage.
- A detective, especially used sarcastically to address somebody who has stated the obvious.
- — Where that arrow on the map says 'You are here', that must be where we are.
— Yeah, well done Sherlock.
- — Where that arrow on the map says 'You are here', that must be where we are.
Verb capitalized: Sherlock
Sherlock (third-person singular simple present Sherlocks, present participle Sherlocking, simple past and past participle Sherlocked)
- To deduce.
- "Anybody could have Sherlocked at a glance," sniffed young Kennilworth, "that it had been packed by a crazy person!"1921, Eleanor Hallowell Abbott, Rainy Week, E. P Dutton (1921), page 77
- But almost at once I told myself that I ought to have Sherlocked the truth the moment this troubled, beautiful being had appeared on deck.1921, C. N. Williamson, A. M. Williamson, The Brightener, Doubleday, page 274
- Synonyms:
- figure out, solve
- To search.
- That afternoon when the boys were in the field Mr. Frickstad sherlocked around in the tents and under the cots looking for a missing rocking-chair.1908, The Blue and Gold, volume 35, page 52
- It is reported that Governor McCall will also appoint a committee to investigate the high cost of living, but in the meantime individual investigators have Sherlocked around and their stories would make DeQuincy's Life of an Opium Eater fade into insignificance.1917, The National Provisioner, Volume 56, Part 1, page 33
- To obsolete a unique feature in third-party software by introducing a similar or identical feature to the OS or a first-party program/app.
- The thing software developers fear most is being "sherlocked".2012 July 13, “You've been sherlocked”, in The Economist
- All three developers are in a position common enough that it even has a name in the community. They have been "sherlocked".2013 October 28, Alex Hern, “Sherlocked: how Mavericks is making some apps obsolete”, in The Guardian
Synonyms of sherlock
Forms of sherlock
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | sherlocks |
| present participle | sherlocking |
| past participle | sherlocked |
| past | sherlocked |
| third-person singular present | Sherlocks |
| present participle | Sherlocking |
| past participle | Sherlocked |
| past | Sherlocked |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Sherlocks |
Origin of sherlock
Supposedly from an Old English scir-locc (“bright-lock”). One of a group of surnames originally denoting hair colour, parallel to Blacklock, Harlock (Old English har (“grey”)), Silverlock. In the sense of “a detective”, from Sherlock Holmes. In the computing verb sense, refers to the software Sherlock, which in 2002 came to replicate some of the features of an earlier complementary program called Watson.
Words formed from sherlock
Phrases with sherlock
Questions about sherlock
- What does sherlock mean?
- Sherlock means an English surname transferred from the nickname.
- What is sherlock the alternative letter-case form of?
- Sherlock is the alternative letter-case form of Sherlock.
- What part of speech is sherlock?
- Sherlock can be a proper noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sherlock?
- Sherlock is pronounced /ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/.
Words near sherlock in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sherlock (page history and authors); Sherlock (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-au-Sherlock.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sherlock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sherlock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.