A lock for a door can be integral or separate (e.g., a padlock). To secure it, there's the verb "lock". The door in question can be "locked" or "unlocked".
In a canal, a lock is a segment that can be segregated from the main flow, allowing the water level to be raised or lowered, so that a vessel in the lock can get around an otherwise unnavigable stretch of the main waterway. Again a verb: "lock through". And an adjectival prefix: "lockmaster".
A snippet of hair, as in "The Rape of the Lock", a poem by Alexander Pope, or held as a keepsake in a locket. (No verb that I'm aware of.)
An intangible analogue of the first sense, as in "a lock on an account"; again a verb.
A type of firearm: "flintlock" or "percussion lock". In this regard, Slava has asked about "lock and load", q.v.
How might these be related?
Lock
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1145
- Joined: Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:21 am
- Location: Melbourne
Re: Lock
And what about a lock-down - such as Australia is currently enjoying?
Or a lock-up that Nelson Mandela endured for 25 years?
Or a lock-out that British coal-miners have suffered in times gone by?
Or a lock-in that fixes a date in our diaries for a particular event?
Or a lock-away that keeps things safe for retrieval later?
Or a lock-up that Nelson Mandela endured for 25 years?
Or a lock-out that British coal-miners have suffered in times gone by?
Or a lock-in that fixes a date in our diaries for a particular event?
Or a lock-away that keeps things safe for retrieval later?
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