lock up
Britishverb
-
Also: lock in. lock away. (tr) to imprison or confine
-
to lock or secure the doors, windows, etc, of (a building)
-
(tr) to keep or store securely
secrets locked up in history
-
(tr) to invest (funds) so that conversion into cash is difficult
-
printing to secure (type, etc) in a chase or in the bed of the printing machine by tightening the quoins
noun
-
the action or time of locking up
-
a jail or block of cells
-
a small shop with no attached quarters for the owner or shopkeeper
-
a garage or storage place separate from the main premises
-
stock exchange an investment that is intended to be held for a relatively long period
-
printing the pages of type held in a chase by the positioning of quoins
adjective
-
Close a house or place of work, fastening all the doors and windows, as in The attendant locks up at eleven o'clock every night , or Did you remind Abby to lock up? [Late 1500s]
-
Invest in something not easily converted into cash, as in Most of their assets were locked up in real estate . [Late 1600s]
-
lock someone up . Confine or imprison someone, as in The princes were locked up in the Tower of London . [c. 1300]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"This government is committed to public safety: we are building prison places at the fastest rate since the Victorian era, and taking the difficult decisions needed to lock up the most dangerous offenders."
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Last night Ghazalian could not properly lock up Dialog Cafe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
Why lock up deodorant when a company could use that cash to pay their employees enough to stop living paycheck-to-paycheck?
From Salon ● May 22, 2026
For years, Altman has sought to lock up as much data-center capacity as possible, arguing that computing shortages were the biggest constraint to OpenAI’s growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
I pulled the lock up for him and scooted over to the passenger’s side of the car.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
