Noun

(en noun)

Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.

* 1883 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)

"Give me the key," said my mother; and though the lock was very stiff, she had turned it and thrown back the lid in a twinkling.

*, chapter=13

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time. 'Twas locked, of course, but the Deacon man got a big bunch of keys out of his pocket and commenced to putter with the lock .}}

A mutex or other token restricting access to a resource.

* 2005 , Karl Kopper, The Linux Enterprise Cluster

the application must first acquire a lock on a file or a portion of a file before reading data and modifying it.

A segment of a canal or other waterway enclosed by gates, used for raising and lowering boats between levels.

* 1846 , (William Makepeace Thackeray), Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo

Here the canal came to a check, ending abruptly with a large lock .

The firing mechanism of a gun.

* 1837 , (Charles Dickens), (The Pickwick Papers)

"I never saw such a gun in my life," replied poor Winkle, looking at the lock , as if that would do any good.

Complete control over a situation.

* 2003 , (Charley Rosen), The Wizard of Odds

Even though he had not yet done so, Jack felt he had a lock on the game.

Something sure to be a success.

* 2004 , (Avery Corman), A perfect divorce

Brian thinks she's a lock to get a scholarship somewhere.

(label) A player in the scrum behind the front row, usually the tallest members of the team.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=Septembe 24, author=Ben Dirs, work=BBC Sport

, title= Rugby World Cup 2011: England 67-3 Romania , passage=Ashton only had to wait three minutes for his second try, lock Louis Deacon setting it up with a rollocking line-break, before Romania got on the scoreboard courtesy of a penalty from fly-half Marin Danut Dumbrava. }}

A fastening together or interlacing; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable.

* (Thomas De Quincey) (1785-1859)

Albemarle Street closed by a lock of carriages

A place from which egress is prevented, as by a lock.

(Dryden)

A device for keeping a wheel from turning.

A grapple in wrestling.

(Milton)

Noun

(en noun)

tuft or length of hair

*

If I consent to burn them, will you promise faithfully neither to send nor receive a letter again, nor a book (for I perceive you have sent him books), nor locks of hair, nor rings, nor playthings?

Noun

(en noun)

A fern; bracken.

Noun

(en noun)

A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc.

*

He halts, and searches with his eyes

Among the scatter'd rocks:

And now at distance can discern

A stirring in a brake of fern

* Shakespeare

Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, / To shelter thee from tempest and from rain.

* Sir Walter Scott

He stayed not for brake , and he stopped not for stone.

Noun

(en noun)

A tool used for breaking flax or hemp.

A type of machine for bending sheet metal. (See .)

A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after ploughing; a drag.

Noun

(en noun)

(label) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.

# (label) The winch of a crossbow.

The handle of a pump.

A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, by friction; also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.

# The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle

# (label) An apparatus for testing the power of a steam engine or other motor by weighing the amount of friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake.

# (label) Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.

A baker's kneading trough.

(Johnson)

A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.

# A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him.

# An enclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.

#* 1868 , March 7, The Illustrated London News , number 1472, volume 52, “Law and Police”, page 223:

He was shooting, and the field where the [cock-fighting] ring was verged on the shooting-brake where the rabbits were.

#* J. Brende

A horseand because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars.

# A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.

# A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.^(w)

#*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=It had been arranged as part of the day's programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake .}}

#*{{quote-book, year=1976, author=(Terrance Dicks)

, title=, chapter=1, page=11 , passage=A few moments later they heard the sound of an engine, and a muddy shooting brake appeared on the road behind them.}}

That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.

Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) A cage.

* 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 83:

Methods of applying pain were many and ingenious, in particular the ways of twisting, stretching and manipulating the body out of shape, normally falling under the catch-all term of the rack, or the brakes .