under lock and key
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The sorrows that trouble him he keeps under lock and key.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
Maybe we’ll find ourselves under lock and key across the street in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
From Salon • Nov. 7, 2025
Wirtz could provide an option on the flank, but Liverpool's wide areas appear to be under lock and key.
From BBC • Jun. 20, 2025
The acting is grounded in realism but the writing refuses to keep the characters under lock and key.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2025
“But you don’t know it equal to me. You must have been under lock and key, dear boy, to know it equal to me,—but I ain’t a-going to be low.”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
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.
