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Wiktionary

lock up

See also: lockup, and lock-up

English

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Etymology

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lock + up

Pronunciation

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Verb

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lock up (third-person singular simple present locks up, present participle locking up, simple past and past participle locked up)

  1. (transitive) To imprison or incarcerate (someone).
    Synonyms: send away, shut away
    • 2020 July 23, Chris Daw, “'A stain on national life': why are we locking up so many children?'”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      In 1970, a new era of "getting tough" on young offenders really began to gather momentum with the incoming Conservative government. The number of juveniles locked up each year increased by 500% between 1965 and 1980.
  2. (transitive) To put (something) away in a locked location for safekeeping; (occasionally, chiefly humorously) to sequester (a person) in a similar way.
    Hyponym: lock away
    Please lock up all valuables in the safe before leaving.
    Angus is back in town! Better lock up your daughters, your wife, and your sheep!
  3. (intransitive) To close (and often lock) all doors and windows (of a place) securely.
    Coordinate term: lock down
  4. (transitive) To lock (a door, window, etc.).
    That door still needs to be locked up.
  5. (intransitive, computing) To cease responding.
    Synonyms: freeze, freeze up, hang, hang up
    When I press this button, the program locks up.
  6. (transitive, computing) To cause (a program) to cease responding or to freeze.
    If your password contains a particular string of letters, entering it can lock up the login form.
  7. (intransitive, mechanics) To stop moving; to seize.
    1. (of a wheel) To stop spinning due to excessive braking torque.
      • 2004 October 18, Gabinete de Prevenção e Investigação de Acidentes com Aeronaves, “1.3 Damage to Aircraft”, in Accident Investigation Final Report: All Engines-out Landing Due to Fuel Exhaustion, Air Transat Airbus A330-243 marks C-GITS, Lajes, Azores, Portugal, 24 August 2001‎[2], archived from the original on 30 October 2022, page 11:
        Due to the engines-out condition, the landing was conducted without the brake antiskid and normal breaking[sic] systems. Because the emergency brake accumulator only provides for a limited amount of brake applications, full braking was applied and retained at the second touch down, resulting in the main wheels locking up. The tires quickly abraded and deflated at a point between about 300 and 450 feet beyond the second and final touch down.
  8. To lose one's forward momentum; to freeze.
  9. (intransitive, motor racing) To (mistakenly) cause or have one of one's wheels to lock up (stop spinning).
    • 2019 September 8, Andrew Benson, BBC Sport‎[3]:
      Twelve laps later, Leclerc locked up at the first chicane and clattered over the run-off area. Again, Hamilton got a run on him, and this time Leclerc defended robustly through the flat-out Curva Grande, moving very late to block Hamilton to the Ferrari's left.
  10. (transitive) To invest in something long term.
  11. (intransitive, boating) To travel through a flight of locks on a waterway in an uphill direction.
    Antonym: lock down
    Hypernym: lock through
  12. (obsolete, printing) To fasten quoins securely with a mallet and a shooting-stick.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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