lock

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   become rigid or immoveable

   The therapist noticed that the patient's knees tended to lock in this exercise

2. 2
   verb

   put in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape

   The parents locked their children up for the weekend.

3. 3
   verb

   fasten with a lock

   lock the bike to the fence

4. 4
   verb

   become engaged or intermeshed with one another

   They were locked in embrace

5. 5
   verb

   to hold in a locking position

   They locked their hands around the boulder.

6. 6
   verb

   hold fast in a certain state

   I was locked in a laughing fit.

7. 7
   noun

   Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.

   "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.

8. 8
   noun

   A mutex or other token restricting access to a resource.

   [T]he application must first acquire a lock on a file or a portion of a file before reading data and modifying it.

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-Ger…