lock
pronunciation
How to pronounce lock in British English:
UK [lɒk]
How to pronounce lock in American English:
US [lɑːk]
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- Noun:
- a fastener fitted to a door or drawer to keep it firmly closed
- a strand or cluster of hair
- a mechanism that detonates the charge of a gun
- enclosure consisting of a section of canal that can be closed to control the water level; used to raise or lower vessels that pass through it
- a restraint incorporated into the ignition switch to prevent the use of a vehicle by persons who do not have the key
- any wrestling hold in which some part of the opponent's body is twisted or pressured
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- Verb:
- fasten with a lock
- keep engaged
- become rigid or immoveable
- hold in a locking position
- become engaged or intermeshed with one another
- hold fast (in a certain state)
- place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape
- pass by means through a lock in a waterway
- build locks in order to facilitate the navigation of vessels
Word Origin
- lock
- lock: [OE] English has two words lock. The one meaning ‘fastening mechanism’ goes back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic *luk-or *lūk-, denoting ‘close’, which also produced German loch ‘hole’ and Swedish lock ‘lid’. Closely related are locker [15], etymologically a ‘box with a lock’, and locket [14], which was acquired from Old French locquet, a diminutive form of loc (which itself was a borrowing from Germanic *luk-). Lock ‘piece of hair’ goes back to a prehistoric Indo-European *lug-, which denoted ‘bending’. Its Germanic relatives include German locke, Dutch and Danish lok, and Swedish lock.
- lock (n.1)
- "means of fastening," Old English loc "bolt, fastening; barrier, enclosure," from Proto-Germanic *lukan (cognates: Old Norse lok "fastening, lock," Gothic usluks "opening," Old High German loh "dungeon," German Loch "opening, hole," Dutch luik "shutter, trapdoor"). "The great diversity of meaning in the Teut. words seems to indicate two or more independent but formally identical substantival formations from the root." The Old English sense "barrier, enclosure" led to the specific meaning "barrier on a river" (c. 1300), and the more specific sense "gate and sluice system on a water channel used as a means of raising and lowering boats" (1570s). Wrestling sense is from c. 1600. Phrase under lock and key attested from early 14c.
- lock (n.2)
- "tress of hair," Old English locc "lock of hair, curl," from Proto-Germanic *lukkoz (cognates: Old Norse lokkr, Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch lok, Old High German loc, German Locke "lock of hair"), from PIE *lugnos-, perhaps related to Greek lygos "pliant twig, withe," Lithuanian lugnas "flexible."
- lock (v.)
- "to fasten with a lock," c. 1300, from Old English lucan "to lock, to close" (class II strong verb; past tense leac, past participle locen), from the same root as lock (n.1). Cognate with Old Frisian luka "to close," Old Saxon lukan, Old High German luhhan, Old Norse luka, Gothic galukan. Meaning "to embrace closely" is from 1610s. Related: Locked; locking. Slang lock horns "fight" is from 1839.
Example
- 1. I lock the doors and roll up the windows .
- 2. Publishers are allowed to lock people into long-term subscriptions .
- 3. The blue plastic suitcase that breather betty comes in , it has no lock .
- 4. But it 's the brain that takes control or rather lock their up during orgasm .
- 5. Spend at least a few minutes alone each day even if you have to lock yourself in the bathroom to do it !