Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LOCHE, n. [See LOACH.]

LO-CHI'A, n. [Gr. λοχεια.]

Evacuations which follow childbirth.

LO'CHI-AL, a.

Pertaining to evacuations from the womb after childbirth.

LOCK, n. [Sax. loc or loce, an inclosed place, the fastening of a door, a tuft or curl of hair. In the latter sense, it is the G. locke, D. lok, L. floccus, Eng. lock; Ir. loc, a stop, hinder ante; W. lloc, a mound, an inclosed place; Russ. lokon, a lock of hair; Sax. lucan, Goth. lukan, to lock; Dan. lukke, a hedge, fence or bar; lukker, to shut, to inclose, to fasten, to lock; Fr. loquet, a latch; Arm. licqued, or clicqed, W. clicied. Lock and flock may be of one family. The primary sense is to shut, to close, to press, strain or drive, which may be the radical sense of flock, Gr. πλεκω, πλοκος, L. plico, as well as of lock. But see Class Lg, No. 48, and 13, 14, 16.]

1. Lock, in its primary sense, is any thing that fastens; but we now appropriate the word to an instrument composed of a spring, wards, and a bolt of iron or steel, used to fasten doors, chests and the like. The bolt is moved by a key.
2. The part of a musket or fowling-piece or other fire-arm, which contains the pan, trigger, &c.
3. The barrier or works of a canal, which confine the water, consisting of a dam, banks or walls, with two gates or pairs of gates, which may be opened or shut at pleasure.
4. A grapple or wrestling. – Milton.
5. Any inclosure. – Dryden.
6. A tuft of hair; a plexus of wool, hay or other like substance; a flock; a ringlet of hair. A lock of hair will draw more than a cable rope. – Grew. Lock of water, is the measure equal to the contents of the chamber of the locks by which the consumption of water on a canal is estimated.

LOCK, v.i.

1. To become fast. The door locks close.
2. To unite closely by mutual insertion; as, they lock into each other. – Boyle.

LOCK, v.t.

1. To fasten with a particular instrument; as, to lock door; to lock a trunk.
2. To shut up or confine, as with a lock; as, to be locked in a prison; Lock the secret in your breast.
3. To close fast. The frost locks up our rivers.
4. To embrace closely; as, to lock one in the arms.
5. To furnish with locks, as a canal.
6. To confine; to restrain. Our shipping was locked up by the embargo.
7. In fencing, to seize the sword arm of an antagonist, by turning the left arm around it, after closing the parade, shell to shell, in order to disarm him. – Cyc.

LOCK'AGE, n.

1. Materials for locks in a canal. – Gallatin.
2. Works which form a lock on a canal. Journ. of Science.
3. Toll paid for passing the locks of a canal.
4. Elevation or amount of elevation and descent made by the locks of a canal. “The entire lockage will be abets fifty feet on each side of the summit level.” Clinton.

LOCK'ED, pp.

Made fast by a lock; furnished with a lock or locks; closely embraced.

LOCK'ER, n.

A close place, as a drawer or an apartment in a ship, that may be closed with a lock. A shot-locker is a strong frame of plank near the pump-well in the hold, where shot are deposited. – Mar. Dict.

LOCK'ET, n. [Fr. loquet.]

A small lock; a catch or spring to fasten a necklace or other ornament. – Johnson.

LOCK'ING, ppr.

Making fast by a lock; embracing closely.

LOCK'IST, n.

An adherent of Locke, the philosopher.

LOCK'-KEEP-ER, n.

One who attends the locks of a canal.

LOCK'LESS, a.

Destitute of a lock.

LOCK'-PAD-DLE, n.

A small sluse that serves to fill and empty a lock.

LOCK'RAM, n.

A sort of coarse linen. – Hanmer.

LOCK'RON, n.

A sort of Ranunculus.

LOCK'-SIL, n.

An angular piece of timber at the bottom of a lock, against which the gates shut.

LOCK'SMITH, n.

An artificer whose occupation is to make locks.

LOCK'-WEIR, n.

A paddle-weir, in canals, an over-fall behind the upper gates, by which the waste water of the upper pound is let down through the paddle-holes into the chamber of the lock. – Cyc.

LOCK'Y, a.

Having locks or tufts. – Sherwood.

LO-CO-DE-SCRIP'TIVE, a.

Describing a particular place or places.

LO-CO-MO'TION, n. [L. locus, place, and motio, motion.]

1. The act of moving from place to place. – Brown.
2. The power of moving from place to place. Most animals possess locomotion; plants have life but not locomotion.

LO-CO-MO'TIVE, a.

Moving from place to place; changing place, or able to change place; as, a locomotive animal. Most animals are distinguished from plants by their emotive faculty. Locomotive engine, a steam engine employed in land carriage; chiefly on railways.

LO-CO-MO'TIVE, n.

A car moved by an engine or steam on rail ways.