Word.ws English Dictionary

under lock and key

under lock and key prepositional phrase: imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK, US, idiomatic) Imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up.
    • If it was him we can have him under lock and key in 24 hours.
  2. (UK, US, idiomatic) Safely guarded; locked away.
    • It is the policy of the organization to keep unused check supplies safeguarded under lock and key.2008, Edward J. McMillan, Model Policies and Procedures for Not-for-Profit Organizations, page 239

under lock and key meaning in Kannada

under lock and key in Kannada

ಭದ್ರವಾಗಿ ಬೀಗ ಹಾಕಿಟ್ಟಿರುವ

Questions about under lock and key

What does under lock and key mean?
Under lock and key means imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up.
What is under lock and key in Kannada?
Under lock and key in Kannada is ಭದ್ರವಾಗಿ ಬೀಗ ಹಾಕಿಟ್ಟಿರುವ. See Under lock and key meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is under lock and key?
Under lock and key is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under lock and key in the dictionary

  1. under fire
  2. under glass
  3. under ground
  4. under hack
  5. under hatches
  6. under lock and key
  7. under no circumstance
  8. under no circumstances
  9. under oath
  10. under one roof
  11. under one's arm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under lock and key (page history and authors); under lock and key (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-under lock and key.ogg.

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