lockdown
[lok-doun]
- the confining of prisoners to their cells, as following a riot or other disturbance.
- a security measure taken during an emergency to prevent people from leaving or entering a building: The school remains under lockdown due to police activity in the area.
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Origin of lockdown
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lockdown
Contemporary Examples
Hence, I suspect, the panic, the lockdown, the capitulation.
When it hits your city, be ready to lockdown your house and banish outside family members, they seem to suggest.
Police put the school in lockdown and searched the classrooms and lockers, with no result.
The Senate and House went on lockdown amid reports of gunfire nearby.
Her own daughter was not at that school but a nearby school, and it went on lockdown.
lockdown
- US a security measure in which those inside a building such as a prison, school, or hospital are required to remain confined in it for a timemany schools remained under lockdown yesterday
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for lockdown
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper