lock

Meanings

Noun

• Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.
• A mutex or other token restricting access to a resource.
• A segment of a canal or other waterway enclosed by gates, used for raising and lowering boats between levels.
• The firing mechanism.
• Complete control over a situation.
• Something sure to be a success.
• A player in the scrum behind the front row, usually the tallest members of the team.
• A fastening together or interlacing; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable.
• A place impossible to get out of, as by a lock.
• A device for keeping a wheel from turning.
• A grapple in wrestling.
• A tuft or length of hair, wool etc.
• A small quantity of straw etc.
• A quantity of meal, the perquisite of a mill-servant.

Verb

• To become fastened in place.
• To fasten with a lock.
• To be capable of becoming fastened in place.
• To intertwine or dovetail.
• To freeze one's body or a part thereof in place.
• To furnish (a canal) with locks.
• To raise or lower (a boat) in a lock.
• To seize (e.g. the sword arm of an antagonist) by turning the left arm around it, to disarm him.
• To modify (a thread) so that users cannot make new posts in it.
• To prevent a page from being edited by other users.

Related

Opposite words

• unlock

Narrower meaning words

• ankle lock
• caps lock
• deadlock
• doglock
• flash lock
• flat lock
• flintlock
• gridlock
• gunlock
• gust lock
• leglock
• liplock
• livelock
• lock gate
• num lock
• matchlock
• overlock
• padlock
• scroll lock
• staircase lock
• tide lock
• time lock
• wheellock
• Windsor Locks

Origin

• 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"). The verb is from Middle English locken, lokken, louken, from Old English lūcan, Proto-West Germanic *lūkan, from Proto-Germanic *lūkaną. luxe.
• From Middle English lok, lokke, from Old English locc, from Proto-Germanic *lukkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *lugnó-, from Proto-Indo-European *lewg-.
• Cognate with Old Norse lokkr (whence Danish lok), German Locke. It has been theorised that the word may be related to the Gothic verb *𐌻𐌿𐌺𐌰𐌽 in its ancient meaning "to curb".