Civil Engineering. an airtight chamber permitting passage to or from a space, as in a caisson, in which the air is kept under pressure.
the impedance in the functioning of a pump or a system of piping caused by the presence of an air bubble; vapor lock.
First recorded in 1855–60
First recorded in 1855–60
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Customers still experiencing ongoing problems as isolated issues were likely to be affected by an air lock, SWW said, and those affected should contact it.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2025
Do you need to wash everything, wear gloves, and/or create a makeshift air lock where the Instacart delivery person can drop your bags?
From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2020
It deflated enough to allow Mr. Leonov to enter the capsule’s air lock headfirst, but the change in pressure left him at risk of decompression sickness.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2019
After three attempts at clearing the air lock, I got my engine going and made it through.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 4, 2018
The rule inside the air lock was that the two doors, the far door and the near door, could never be open at the same time.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
He had to film a few moments of footage in which Roy emerges from an air-lock door and leaps into open space—the lead-in to the climax of the film.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 9, 2019
It was something more than an extension of the newspaper: for some a home from home, for others an air-lock between the desk and suburbia.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 2, 2019
There were also the air-lock steel doors that swung open, saloon-style, dozens of times a day, as miners in mantrips crossed over the primary tunnel providing fresh air.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2010
Sanitation of the ship will be accomplished through the medium of an air-lock in which refuse will be deposited.
From Time Magazine Archive
She threw open the air-lock door and stepped inside and slammed the door behind her.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
