• | A tuft of hair; a flock or small quantity of wool, hay, or other like substance; a tress or ringlet of hair. |
• | 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. |
• | A fastening together or interlacing; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable. |
• | A place from which egress is prevented, as by a lock. |
• | The barrier or works which 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; -- called also lift lock. |
• | That part or apparatus of a firearm by which the charge is exploded; as, a matchlock, flintlock, percussion lock, etc. |
• | A device for keeping a wheel from turning. |
• | A grapple in wrestling. |
• | To fasten with a lock, or as with a lock; to make fast; to prevent free movement of; as, to lock a door, a carriage wheel, a river, etc. |
• | To prevent ingress or access to, or exit from, by fastening the lock or locks of; -- often with up; as, to lock or lock up, a house, jail, room, trunk. etc. |
• | 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; as, to lock one's self in a room; to lock up the prisoners; to lock up one's silver; to lock intruders out of the house; to lock money into a vault; to lock a child in one's arms; to lock a secret in one's breast. |
• | To link together; to clasp closely; as, to lock arms. |
• | To furnish with locks; also, to raise or lower (a boat) in a lock. |
• | To seize, as the sword arm of an antagonist, by turning the left arm around it, to disarm him. |
• | To become fast, as by means of a lock or by interlacing; as, the door locks close. |