# lock up
## English
### Etymology

lock + up

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˌlɒk ˈʌp/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)

### Verb

lock up (third-person singular simple present locks up, present participle locking up, simple past and past participle locked up)
* (transitive) To imprison or incarcerate (someone).
    Synonyms: send away, shut away
** 2020 July 23, Chris Daw, “'A stain on national life': why are we locking up so many children?'”, in The Guardian‎:In 1970, a new era of "getting tough" on young offenders really began to gather momentum with the incoming Conservative government. The number of juveniles locked up each year increased by 500% between 1965 and 1980.
* (transitive) To put (something) away in a locked location for safekeeping; (occasionally, chiefly humorously) to sequester (a person) in a similar way.
    Hyponym: lock away
    Please lock up all valuables in the safe before leaving.
    Angus is back in town! Better lock up your daughters, your wife, and your sheep!
* (intransitive) To close (and often lock) all doors and windows (of a place) securely.
    Coordinate term: lock down
* (transitive) To lock (a door, window, etc.).
    That door still needs to be locked up.
* (intransitive, computing) To cease responding.
    Synonyms: freeze, freeze up, hang, hang up
    When I press this button, the program locks up.
* (transitive, computing) To cause (a program) to cease responding or to freeze.
    If your password contains a particular string of letters, entering it can lock up the login form.
* (intransitive, mechanics) To stop moving; to seize.
** (of a wheel) To stop spinning due to excessive braking torque.
*** 2004 October 18, Gabinete de Prevenção e Investigação de Acidentes com Aeronaves, “1.3 Damage to Aircraft”, in Accident Investigation Final Report: All Engines-out Landing Due to Fuel Exhaustion, Air Transat Airbus A330-243 marks C-GITS, Lajes, Azores, Portugal, 24 August 2001‎, archived from the original on 30 October 2022, page 11:Due to the engines-out condition, the landing was conducted without the brake antiskid and normal breaking systems. Because the emergency brake accumulator only provides for a limited amount of brake applications, full braking was applied and retained at the second touch down, resulting in the main wheels locking up. The tires quickly abraded and deflated at a point between about 300 and 450 feet beyond the second and final touch down.
* To lose one's forward momentum; to freeze.
* (intransitive, motor racing) To (mistakenly) cause or have one of one's wheels to lock up (stop spinning).
** 2019 September 8, Andrew Benson, BBC Sport‎:Twelve laps later, Leclerc locked up at the first chicane and clattered over the run-off area. Again, Hamilton got a run on him, and this time Leclerc defended robustly through the flat-out Curva Grande, moving very late to block Hamilton to the Ferrari's left.
* (transitive) To invest in something long term.
* (intransitive, boating) To travel through a flight of locks on a waterway in an uphill direction.
    Antonym: lock down
    Hypernym: lock through
* (obsolete, printing) To fasten quoins securely with a mallet and a shooting-stick.

#### Derived terms

* lock someone up and throw away the key
* lockup (noun)
* lock-up (noun)

#### Related terms

* (invest in something): lockaway (noun)

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* uplock