lock

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A device operated by a key, combination, or keycard and used, as on a door, for holding, closing, or securing.
2. n. A section of a waterway, such as a canal, closed off with gates, in which vessels in transit are raised or lowered by raising or lowering the water level of that section.
3. n. A mechanism in a firearm for exploding the charge.
4. n. An interlocking or entanglement of elements or parts.
5. n. Sports A hold in wrestling or self-defense that is secured on a part of an opponent's body.
6. n. A secure hold; control: The distributor has a lock on most of the market.
7. n. A sure thing; a certainty: His promotion is a lock.
8. v. To fasten the lock of: close and lock a drawer.
9. v. To shut or make secure with or as if with locks: locked the house.
10. v. To confine or exclude by or as if by means of a lock: locked the dog in for the night; locked the criminal up in a cell.
11. v. To fix in place so that movement or escape is impossible; hold fast: The ship was locked in the ice through the winter. She felt that she had become locked into a binding agreement.
12. v. To sight and follow (a moving target) automatically: locked the enemy fighter in the gun sights.
13. v. To aim (a weapon or other device) at a moving target so as to follow it automatically: "The pilot had locked his targeting radar on the slow-moving frigate” ( Ed Magnuson).
14. v. To engage and interlock securely so as to be immobile.
15. v. To clasp or link firmly; intertwine: locked arms and walked away.
16. v. To bind in close struggle or battle: The two dogs were locked in combat.
17. v. To equip (a waterway) with locks.
18. v. To pass (a vessel) through a lock.
19. v. Printing To secure (letterpress type) in a chase or press bed by tightening the quoins.
20. v. Printing To fasten (a curved plate) to the cylinder of a rotary press.
21. v. To invest (funds) in such a way that they cannot easily be converted into cash.
22. v. Computer Science To end the processing of (a magnetic tape or disk) in such a way as to deny access to its contents.
23. v. Computer Science To protect (a file) from changes or deletion.
24. v. To become fastened by or as if by means of a lock: The door locks automatically when shut.
25. v. To become entangled; interlock.
26. v. To become rigid or immobile: The mechanism tends to lock in cold weather.
27. v. To pass through a lock or locks in a waterway.
28. lock out To withhold work from (employees) during a labor dispute.
29. idiom. lock horns To become embroiled in conflict.
30. idiom. lock, stock, and barrel To the greatest or most complete extent; wholly: an estate that was auctioned off lock, stock, and barrel.
31. idiom. under lock and key Securely locked up.
32. n. A length or curl of hair; a tress.
33. n. The hair of the head. Often used in the plural.
34. n. A small wisp or tuft, as of wool or cotton.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Anything that fastens something else; specifically, an appliance for securing in position a door, gate, window, drawer, lid, etc., when closed, by means of a key, or of some secret contrivance requiring manipulation by one to whom it is known; hence, any device that prevents movement. The essential parts of an ordinary lock are a bolt, wards, tumbler, and a spring. The bolt is a bar which slides or catches in an opening made to receive it. The spring serves to maintain the bolt in one of two positions—that is, either extended or retracted—corresponding to locking and unlocking. The wards are strips of metal placed within the lock and designed to obstruct the passage of all keys except the one fitted to them. The tumbler is a pivoted bar, or other device, used to hold the bolt in one position, and intended to render it difficult to operate the lock except by the right key. Locks are made in a great variety of styles and shapes, and for many different positions and uses. The security of locks in general depends on the number of impediments or wards that are interposed between the key and the bolt which secures the door.
2. n. A forelock; a cotter or key.
3. n. In firearms, a piece of mechanism which explodes the charge. This is effected either by striking a sharp blow which explodes a fulminating powder or strikes sparks from a flint, etc., or by communicating fire directly to the priming, as in the old match-lock.
4. n. A form of brake or drag for the wheels of a vehicle, used to prevent them from turning in descending steep hills; a lock-chain or skid-chain.
5. n. The swerving to the right or left of the fore-carriage, deviating from the line of direction of the hind wheels and the trend of the carriages proper. It is called the haw or gee lock respectively, according as it is to the left or right of the driver.
6. n. In plastering, the projection of the plaster, cement, etc., behind the laths, which serves to prevent it from scaling off.
7. n. A place shut in or locked up; an inclosure; a lockup.
8. n. A barrier to confine the water of a stream or canal; an inclosure in a canal, with gates at each end, used in raising or lowering boats as they pass from one level to another. When a vessel is descending, water is let into the chamber of the lock till it is on a level with the higher water, and thus permits the vessel to enter; the upper gates are then closed, and, the lower gates being gradually opened, the water in the lock falls to the level of the low water, and the vessel passes out. In ascending, the operation is reversed. See cut under canal-lock.
9. n. A fastening together; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable; also, a grapple in wrestling; a hug.
10. n. See dead-lock.
11. To close; shut; now, specifically, to close and fasten by means of a lock and key: as, to lock a door or a trunk.
12. To fasten so as to impede motion: as, to lock a wheel.
13. To shut (up) or confine with or as if with a lock, or in an inclosed place; close or fasten (in): with up or in.
14. To close or make fast; press closely together, as separate portions; fix steadfastly or immovably: as, the streams are locked by ice.
15. To join or unite firmly, as by intertwining, interlinking, or infolding: as, to lock arms.
16. To embrace closely; infold.
17. To furnish with a lock.
18. In fencing, to seize, as the sword-arm of an antagonist, by turning the left arm round it, after closing the passade, shell to shell, in order to disarm him.
19. To shut out; prevent from gaining access (to).
20. To enable to pass through a lock, as in a canal. See lock, n., 8.
21. (b To confine; restrain or secure by locking or fastening in: as, to lock up a prisoner; to lock up silver.
22. To secure or place in such a position as not to be available for use: as, his money was locked up in unprofitable enterprises.
23. To become fast; admit of being fastened or locked: as, the door will not lock.
24. To unite closely by mutual insertion of parts.
25. n. A tuft of hair or wool; anything resembling such a tuft; a tress; used absolutely in the plural, hair collectively.
26. n. A tuft or small quantity, as of hay or some similar substance; a small quantity of anything; a handful; specifically, in Scots law, the perquisite of the servant in a mill, consisting of a quantity of meal, regulated by the custom of the mill.
27. n. A love-lock.
28. n. A receiver of stolen goods; also, the house in which such a ‘fence’ receives stolen goods.
29. n. A transposition or duplication of pages on the printed Sheet of a book.

Wiktionary

1. n. tuft or length of hair
2. n. Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.
3. n. computing, by extension A mutex or other token restricting access to a resource.
4. n. A segment of a canal or other waterway enclosed by gates, used for raising and lowering boats between levels.
5. n. The firing mechanism of a gun.
6. n. Complete control over a situation.
7. n. Something sure to be a success.
8. n. rugby A player in the scrum behind the front row, usually the tallest members of the team.
9. v. intransitive To become fastened in place.
10. v. transitive To fasten with a lock.
11. v. intransitive To be capable of becoming fastened in place.
12. v. transitive To intertwine or dovetail.
13. v. intransitive, break dancing To freeze one's body or a part thereof in place.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A tuft of hair; a flock or small quantity of wool, hay, or other like substance; a tress or ringlet of hair.
2. n. Anything that fastens; specifically, a fastening, as for a door, a lid, a trunk, a drawer, and the like, in which a bolt is moved by a key so as to hold or to release the thing fastened.
3. n. A fastening together or interlacing; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable.
4. n. A place from which egress is prevented, as by a lock.
5. n. The barrier or works which confine the water of a stream or canal.
6. n. An inclosure in a canal with gates at each end, used in raising or lowering boats as they pass from one level to another; -- called also lift lock.
7. n. That part or apparatus of a firearm by which the charge is exploded
8. n. A device for keeping a wheel from turning.
9. n. A grapple in wrestling.
10. v. To fasten with a lock, or as with a lock; to make fast; to prevent free movement of
11. v. To prevent ingress or access to, or exit from, by fastening the lock or locks of; -- often with up. etc.
12. v. To fasten in or out, or to make secure by means of, or as with, locks; to confine, or to shut in or out -- often with up
13. v. To link together; to clasp closely.
14. v. (Canals) To furnish with locks; also, to raise or lower (a boat) in a lock.
15. v. (Fencing) To seize, as the sword arm of an antagonist, by turning the left arm around it, to disarm him.
16. v. To become fast, as by means of a lock or by interlacing.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. become engaged or intermeshed with one another
2. v. build locks in order to facilitate the navigation of vessels
3. v. hold fast (in a certain state)
4. n. any wrestling hold in which some part of the opponent's body is twisted or pressured
5. v. hold in a locking position
6. v. become rigid or immoveable
7. v. keep engaged
8. n. 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
9. v. place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape
10. v. fasten with a lock
11. n. a fastener fitted to a door or drawer to keep it firmly closed
12. n. a restraint incorporated into the ignition switch to prevent the use of a vehicle by persons who do not have the key
13. n. a strand or cluster of hair
14. v. pass by means through a lock in a waterway
15. n. a mechanism that detonates the charge of a gun