noun
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a person who picks locks, esp one who gains unlawful access to premises by this means
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an instrument for picking locks
Etymology
Origin of picklock
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.
What is a picklock compared to a debenture share?
From Time Magazine Archive
Der Spiegel's disclosure that an expert picklock from Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's federal intelligence service had helped in the break-in enhanced the impression of a "Watergate am Rhine."
From Time Magazine Archive
The cockiest picklock in the U. S. last week signed a Europe-bound steamship's register: Charles Courtney, New York.
From Time Magazine Archive
And if intentional mystification be admitted, the doors of enquiry, after three hundred and fifty years, are practically sealed to the critical picklock.
From The Dance of Death by Dobson, Austin
Nay, sir," said Johnson, "conversation is the key, wine is a picklock, which forces open the box and injures it.
From Samuel Johnson by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
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.
