Lock vs Couple - What's the difference?
lock | couple | Related terms |
Something used for fastening, which can only be opened with a key or combination.
* 1883 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)
*, chapter=13
, title= A mutex or other token restricting access to a resource.
* 2005 , Karl Kopper, The Linux Enterprise Cluster
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
The firing mechanism of a gun.
* 1837 , (Charles Dickens), (The Pickwick Papers)
Complete control over a situation.
* 2003 , (Charley Rosen), The Wizard of Odds
Something sure to be a success.
* 2004 , (Avery Corman), A perfect divorce
(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= A fastening together or interlacing; a closing of one thing upon another; a state of being fixed or immovable.
* (Thomas De Quincey) (1785-1859)
A place from which egress is prevented, as by a lock.
A device for keeping a wheel from turning.
A grapple in wrestling.
(label) To become fastened in place.
*, chapter=13
, title= (label) To fasten with a lock.
(label) To be capable of becoming fastened in place.
(label) To intertwine or dovetail.
To freeze one's body or a part thereof in place.
To furnish (a canal) with locks.
To raise or lower (a boat) in a lock.
tuft or length of hair
*
Two partners in a romantic or sexual relationship.
* 1729 , (Jonathan Swift), (A Modest Proposal)
Two of the same kind connected or considered together.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
(label) A small number.
* 1839 , (Charles Dickens), (Nicholas Nickleby)
* 1891 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), (The Adventure of the Red-Headed League)
* 1902 , ,
* , chapter=1
, title= *{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=And no use for anyone to tell Charles that this was because the Family was in mourning for Mr Granville Darracott […]: Charles might only have been second footman at Darracott Place for a couple of months when that disaster occurred, but no one could gammon him into thinking that my lord cared a spangle for his heir.}}
One of the pairs of plates of two metals which compose a voltaic battery, called a voltaic couple or galvanic couple.
(label) Two forces that are equal in magnitude but opposite in direction (and acting along parallel lines), thus creating the turning effect of a torque or moment.
(label) A couple-close.
(label) That which joins or links two things together; a bond or tie; a coupler.
* (w, Roger L'Estrange) (1616-1704)
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
(informal) A small number of.
To join (two things) together, or (one thing) to (another).
(dated) To join in wedlock; to marry.
* (rfdate),
To join in sexual intercourse; to copulate.
* 1987 Alan Norman Bold & Robert Giddings, Who was really who in fiction, Longman
* 2001 John Fisher & Geoff Garvey, The rough guide to Crete, p405
Lock is a related term of couple.
As a proper noun lock
is .As a verb couple is
.lock
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- "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.
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 .}}
- the application must first acquire a lock on a file or a portion of a file before reading data and modifying it.
- Here the canal came to a check, ending abruptly with a large lock .
- "I never saw such a gun in my life," replied poor Winkle, looking at the lock , as if that would do any good.
- Even though he had not yet done so, Jack felt he had a lock on the game.
- Brian thinks she's a lock to get a scholarship somewhere.
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. }}
- Albemarle Street closed by a lock of carriages
- (Dryden)
- (Milton)
Derived terms
* alcolock * ankle lock * anti-lock * caps lock * flash lock * flat lock * flintlock * genlock * gridlock * leglock * liplock * lockfast * lock time * * lockbox * lockmaster * locknote * locksmithing * lockstep * matchlock * num lock * overlock * padlock * picklock * scroll lock * staircase lock * tide lock * time lockVerb
(en verb)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.}}
Antonyms
* unlockDerived terms
* lock and load * lock horns * lock in * lock lips * lock on * lock out * lock up * lockable * relock * unlockableEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m). Cognate with (etyl) (m) (whence (etyl) (m)), (etyl) (m). It has been theorised that the word may be related to the (etyl) verb in its ancient meaning to curb .Noun
(en noun)- 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?
Derived terms
* daglock * elflock * forelock * goldilocks * sidelockcouple
English
Noun
(en noun)- I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders;
- A couple of billiard balls, all mud and dirt, two battered hats, a champagne bottle
- ‘Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, and it need not interfere very much with one’s other occupations.’
Across Coveted Lands:
- When we got on board again after a couple of hours on shore
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.}}
- It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples ; they should be of the same size and humour.
- I'll go in couples with her.
Usage notes
* The traditional and still most broadly accepted usage of be used only as a noun and not as a determiner in formal writing. * "A couple of things" or people may be used to mean two of them, but it is also often used to mean any small number. *: The farm is a couple of miles off the main highway [=a few miles away]. *: We’re going out to a restaurant with a couple of friends [=two friends]. *: Wait a couple of minutes [=two minutes or more].Synonyms
* (two partners) * (two things of the same kind) brace, pair * (a small number of) few, handfulDerived terms
* bridal couple * coupla * couplezilla * couple-close * galvanic couple * voltaic coupleDeterminer
(head)Verb
(coupl)- Now the conductor will couple the train cars.
- I've coupled our system to theirs.
- A parson who couples all our beggars.
- On their wedding night they coupled nine times.
- She had the brilliant inventor and craftsman Daedalus construct her an artificial cow, in which she hid and induced the bull to couple with her [...]