Locks

How to spell locks

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce locks

What does locks mean?

1. nounDevices that fasten doors, gates, or containers and are opened with a key or combination.
2. verbFastens something securely so it cannot be opened without a key or release.
3. nounSections or curls of a person's hair.
4. nounChambers on a canal or waterway that raise or lower boats between different water levels.

Locks in a sentence

• noun

  The landlord changed all the locks before the new tenants arrived.

• verb

  She always locks the office door when she leaves for lunch.

• noun

  The barber trimmed the loose locks that fell across his forehead.

• noun

  The narrowboat passed through a flight of locks on the way to the river.

• noun

  Both locks on the suitcase jammed at the airport.

• verb

  The gate locks automatically at nine each evening.

Where does locks come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English 'loc', a native Anglo-Saxon noun that meant a fastening, a bolt, or an enclosed place, and which was related to the verb 'lucan', meaning 'to close up' or 'to shut'. The same Germanic root sits behind words in Dutch and German for closing and enclosing, which is why the idea of shutting something fast runs through every modern sense. Over the centuries the noun branched out: a 'lock' could be the device that secures a door, the chamber on a canal that holds water to raise or lower boats, or the mechanism on a firearm. The hair sense, a 'lock' of hair, comes from a separate but very old Old English word 'locc' meaning a tress or curl, which happened to fall together with the fastening word in spelling and sound. The plural and verb form 'locks' simply adds the familiar -s ending, and the main spelling trap is that it sounds exactly like 'lox', the smoked salmon, and close to the Scottish 'lochs'.

How the word is built

• lock (Old English loc: fastening, enclosure)
• -s (plural/third-person suffix)