Word: lock Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewg-der. Proto-Germanic *luką Proto-West Germanic *lok Old English loc Middle English lok English lock 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. Pronunciation: /lɒk/, /lɑk/ 1. Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination. Example: "Give me the key," said my mother; and though the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling. Example: 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. 2. A mutex or other token restricting access to a resource. Labels: broadly Example: [T]he application must first acquire a lock on a file or a portion of a file before reading data and modifying it. 3. A segment of a canal or other navigable waterway enclosed by gates, used for raising and lowering boats between levels. Example: Here the canal came to a check, ending abruptly with a large lock. 4. The firing mechanism. Example: "I never saw such a gun in my life," replied poor Winkle, looking at the lock, as if that would do any good. 5. Complete control over a situation. Example: Even though he had not yet done so, Jack felt he had a lock on the game. 6. Something sure to be a success. Example: Brian thinks she's a lock to get a scholarship somewhere. 7. Synonym of Dutch book. 8. A player in the scrum behind the front row, usually the tallest members of the team. Example: Ashton only had to wait three minutes for his second try, lock Louis Deacon setting it up with a rollocking line-break, before Romania got on the scoreboard courtesy of a penalty from fly-half Marin Danut Dumbrava. 9. A fastening together or interlacing; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable. Example: [O]n may of his lecture days I have seen all Albemarle Street closed by a "lock" of carriages, filled with women of distinction, until the servants of the Institution or their own footmen advanced to the carriage-doors with the intelligence that Mr. Coleridge had been suddenly taken ill. 10. A place impossible to get out of, as by a lock. Example: Sergestus, eager with his beak to press / Betwixt the rival galley and the rock, / Shuts up the unwieldy Centaur in the lock 11. A device for keeping a wheel from turning. 12. A grapple in wrestling. Example: They must be also practis'd in all the Locks and Gripes of Wrestling