lock
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /lɒk/
enpr: lŏk
ipa: /lɑk/
rhymes: -ɒk
homophone: Locke
homophone: (Anglicised) loch
homophone: lough
homophone: lakh (one pronunciation)
homophone: lark (non-rhotic)
homophone: lawk (cot–caught merger)
Forms: form: locks
form: locking
form: locked
form: locked
form: locken
Etymology: From Middle English lok, from Old English loc, from Proto-West Germanic *lok, from Proto-Germanic *luką from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend; turn”).
Cognate with Cimbrian loch, lòch (“hole”), Dutch lok (“hole”), German Loch (“hole”), German Low German Lock (“hole”), Luxembourgish Lach (“hole”), Vilamovian łöch (“hole”), Yiddish לאָך (lokh, “hole”), Danish låg (“lid, cover”), Norwegian Bokmål lokk (“lid, cover”), Norwegian Nynorsk lok, lokk (“lid, cover”).
more detail
The verb is from Middle English locken, lokken, louken, from Old English lūcan, Proto-West Germanic *lūkan, from Proto-Germanic *lūkaną. Cognate with Dutch luiken (“to close, to shut”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål lukke (“to close, to shut”), Faroese lúka (“to end, to finish”), Icelandic ljúka (“to close, to shut”), Norwegian Nynorsk lukka (“to close, to shut”). Related to luxe via Latin.
Senses: examples: text: If you put the brakes on too hard, the wheels will lock.
text: We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and commenced to putter with the lock.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To become fastened in place.
examples: text: Remember to lock the door when you leave.
glosses: To fasten with a lock.
examples: text: This door locks with a key.
glosses: To be capable of becoming fastened in place.
examples: text: with his hands locked behind his back
text: We locked arms and stepped out into the night.
glosses: To intertwine or dovetail.
examples: text: a pop and lock routine
qualifier: break dancing
glosses: To freeze one's body or a part thereof in place.
glosses: To furnish (a canal) with locks.
glosses: To raise or lower (a boat) in a lock.
glosses: To seize (e.g. the sword arm of an antagonist) by turning one's left arm around it, to disarm them.
glosses: To modify (a thread) so that users cannot make new posts in it.
examples: text: Frequently-vandalized pages are generally locked to prevent further damage.
qualifier: wiki jargon
glosses: To prevent a page from being edited by other users.
examples: text: Please don't disappoint me - you are female, aren't you? I have a lingering suspicion that you are 17 stone and lock for Tarankai.
ref: 1980, Ken Berry, chapter 14, in First Offender, Auckland: Collins, page 117:
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
rugby
sports
glosses: To play in the position of lock.
Derived terms: antilock
anti-lock
belock
box and lock
core locked
double-lock
inlock
interlock
landlock
land-locked salmon
lip-locked
lockability
lockable
lock and load
lock away
lock down
locked fault
locked groove
locked-in syndrome
locked nucleic acid
locked rotor amp
lock eyes
lock horns
lock in
lock-in
lock into
lock lips
lock off
lock on
lock out
lock-out
lockout
lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen
lock the stable door after the horse has bolted
lock through
lock under
lock up
lock-up
lockup
mode-locked
phase-locked loop
relock
sea-locked
self-locking
stunlock
thread-locking fluid
tidally locked
unlock
unlockability
unlockable
wood-locked