What is "lock"

Safety \Safe"ty\, n. [Cf. F. sauvet['e].]

1. The condition or state of being safe; freedom from danger or hazard; exemption from hurt, injury, or loss.

   Up led by thee, Into the heaven I have presumed, An earthly guest . . . With like safety guided down, Return me to my native element.
   --Milton.

2. Freedom from whatever exposes one to danger or from liability to cause danger or harm; safeness; hence, the quality of making safe or secure, or of giving confidence, justifying trust, insuring against harm or loss, etc.

   Would there were any safety in thy sex, That I might put a thousand sorrows off, And credit thy repentance!
   --Beau. & Fl.

3. Preservation from escape; close custody.

   Imprison him, . . . Deliver him to safety; and return.
   --Shak.

4. (Amer. Football) the act or result of a ball-carrier on the offensive team being tackled behind his own goal line, or the downing of a ball behind the offensive team's own goal line when it had been carried or propelled behind that goal line by a player on the offensive tream; such a play causes a score of two points to be awarded to the defensive team; -- it is distinguished from touchback, when the ball is downed behind the goal after being propelled there or last touched by a player of the defending team. See Touchdown. Same as Safety touchdown, below.

5. Short for Safety bicycle. [archaic]

6. a switch on a firearm that locks the trigger and prevents the firearm from being discharged unintentionally; -- also called safety catch, safety lock, or lock. [archaic]

"means of fastening," Old English loc "bolt, fastening; barrier, enclosure," from Proto-Germanic *lukan (cognates: Old Norse lok "fastening, lock," Gothic usluks "opening," Old High German loh "dungeon," German Loch "opening, hole," Dutch luik "shutter, trapdoor"). "The great diversity of meaning in the Teut. words seems to indicate two or more independent but formally identical substantival formations from the root."\n

\nThe Old English sense "barrier, enclosure" led to the specific meaning "barrier on a river" (c.1300), and the more specific sense "gate and sluice system on a water channel used as a means of raising and lowering boats" (1570s). Wrestling sense is from c.1600. Phrase under lock and key attested from early 14c.

"tress of hair," Old English locc "lock of hair, curl," from Proto-Germanic *lukkoz (cognates: Old Norse lokkr, Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch lok, Old High German loc, German Locke "lock of hair"), from PIE *lugnos-, perhaps related to Greek lygos "pliant twig, withe," Lithuanian lugnas "flexible."

"to fasten with a lock," c.1300, from Old English lucan "to lock, to close" (class II strong verb; past tense leac, past participle locen), from the same root as lock (n.1). Cognate with Old Frisian luka "to close," Old Saxon lukan, Old High German luhhan, Old Norse luka, Gothic galukan. Meaning "to embrace closely" is from 1610s. Related: Locked; locking. Slang lock horns "fight" is from 1839.

Etymology 1 n. Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination. vb. (label en intransitive) To become fastened in place. Etymology 2

n. tuft or length of hair

1. v. fasten with a lock; "lock the bike to the fence" [ant: unlock, unlock]

2. keep engaged; "engaged the gears" [syn: engage, mesh, operate] [ant: disengage]

3. become rigid or immoveable; "The therapist noticed that the patient's knees tended to lock in this exercise" [ant: unlock]

4. hold in a locking position; "He locked his hands around her neck" [syn: interlock, interlace]

5. become engaged or intermeshed with one another; "They were locked in embrace" [syn: interlock]

6. hold fast (in a certain state); "He was locked in a laughing fit"

7. place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape; "The parents locked her daughter up for the weekend"; "She locked her jewels in the safe" [syn: lock in, lock away, put away, shut up, shut away, lock up]

8. pass by means through a lock in a waterway

9. build locks in order to facilitate the navigation of vessels

1. n. a fastener fitted to a door or drawer to keep it firmly closed

2. a strand or cluster of hair [syn: curl, ringlet, whorl]

3. a mechanism that detonates the charge of a gun

4. 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 [syn: lock chamber]

5. a restraint incorporated into the ignition switch to prevent the use of a vehicle by persons who do not have the key [syn: ignition lock]

6. any wrestling hold in which some part of the opponent's body is twisted or pressured

Lock may refer to:

In computer science, a lock or mutex (from mutual exclusion) is a synchronization mechanism for enforcing limits on access to a resource in an environment where there are many threads of execution. A lock is designed to enforce a mutual exclusion concurrency control policy.

A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object (such as a key, keycard, fingerprint, RFID card, security token etc.), by supplying secret information (such as a keycode or password), or by a combination thereof.

A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself (usually then called a caisson) that rises and falls.

Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to take a reasonably direct line across land that is not level.

Since 2016 the largest lock worldwide is the Kieldrecht Lock in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium.

The lock of a muzzle-loading firearm is the system used to ignite the propellant. Types of lock include matchlock, wheellock, snaplock, doglock, snaphance, flintlock, modern percussion, rotating bolt, and experimental electronic types. Parts of the lock can include the wheel (for wheellocks) and the hammer and frizzen (for flintlocks). A complete muzzleloader consists of lock, stock, and barrel. In breech-loading weapons, the general mechanism for handling ammunition is known as the firearm action.

The term firelock was originally applied, as the name suggests, to the matchlock, but was later successively applied to the wheellock and then the flintlock as each was invented.

A lock, as a read lock or write lock, is used when multiple users need to access a database concurrently. This prevents data from being corrupted or invalidated when multiple users try to read while others write to the database. Any single user can only modify those database records (that is, items in the database) to which they have applied a lock that gives them exclusive access to the record until the lock is released. Locking not only provides exclusivity to writes but also prevents (or controls) reading of unfinished modifications (AKA uncommitted data).

A read lock can be used to prevent other users from reading a record (or page) which is being updated, so that others will not act upon soon-to-be-outdated information.

Lock is a surname, and may refer to:

• Bob Lock (born 1949), Welsh science fiction and fantasy writer
• Charles Lock (1770–1804), British consul-general in Naples who quarreled with Admiral Horatio Nelson regarding the latter's military actions
• Charlie Lock (born 1962), Zimbabwean cricketer
• David Lock (born 1960), barrister and Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom
• Don Lock (born 1936), former Major League Baseball outfielder
• Édouard Lock (born 1954), Canadian dance choreographer
• Eric Lock (1919–1941), British Royal Air Force fighter ace of the Second World War
• Herbert Lock (1887–1957), English goalkeeper who played for Southampton and Rangers
• James Lock (sound engineer) (1939–2009), two-time Grammy Award winner in the area of classical music
• James Lock, an early owner (from 1759) and head of James Lock & Co., hatters in London
• Matthias Lock, English 18th century furniture designer and cabinet-maker
• Mi Kwan Lock, French actress
• Ray Lock, a Royal Air Force air vice-marshal
• Sean Lock (born 1963), English comedy writer, comedian and actor
• Tony Lock (1929–1995), English Test cricketer
• Trevor Lock (born 1973), English comedian, actor and playwright

There are several types of Lock Step in International Standard Waltz. A " lock step" is when the moving foot approaches to the standing foot and crosses in front of or behind it, creating a " check" position.

There are several locking steps in Waltz, including the Back Lock, which is a Bronze syllabus figure, the Turning Lock, which is a Silver syllabus figure, or the Turning Lock to Right, which is a Gold syllabus figure.