"under lock and key" meaning in English

See under lock and key in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-under lock and key.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} under lock and key, {{en-PP}} under lock and key
  1. (US, UK, idiomatic) imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up. Tags: UK, US, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-under_lock_and_key-en-prep_phrase-QD2Aoufg Categories (other): American English, British English
  2. (US, UK, idiomatic) safely guarded; locked away. Tags: UK, US, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-under_lock_and_key-en-prep_phrase-kp2hh5ny Categories (other): American English, British English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 62

Download JSON data for under lock and key meaning in English (2.1kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "under lock and key",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "under lock and key",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "If it was him we can have him under lock and key in 24 hours."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up."
      ],
      "id": "en-under_lock_and_key-en-prep_phrase-QD2Aoufg",
      "links": [
        [
          "imprisoned",
          "imprisoned"
        ],
        [
          "locked up",
          "locked up"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, UK, idiomatic) imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "38 62",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Edward J. McMillan, Model Policies and Procedures for Not-for-Profit Organizations, page 239",
          "text": "It is the policy of the organization to keep unused check supplies safeguarded under lock and key.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "safely guarded; locked away."
      ],
      "id": "en-under_lock_and_key-en-prep_phrase-kp2hh5ny",
      "links": [
        [
          "safely",
          "safely"
        ],
        [
          "guarded",
          "guarded"
        ],
        [
          "locked",
          "locked"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, UK, idiomatic) safely guarded; locked away."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-under lock and key.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/81/En-au-under_lock_and_key.ogg/En-au-under_lock_and_key.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/En-au-under_lock_and_key.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "under lock and key"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "prepositional phrase",
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      "expansion": "under lock and key",
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "under lock and key",
      "name": "en-PP"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
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      ],
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        {
          "text": "If it was him we can have him under lock and key in 24 hours."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "imprisoned",
          "imprisoned"
        ],
        [
          "locked up",
          "locked up"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, UK, idiomatic) imprisoned with little or no chance of escape; locked up."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "British English",
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Edward J. McMillan, Model Policies and Procedures for Not-for-Profit Organizations, page 239",
          "text": "It is the policy of the organization to keep unused check supplies safeguarded under lock and key.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "safely guarded; locked away."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "safely",
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        ],
        [
          "guarded",
          "guarded"
        ],
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          "locked",
          "locked"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, UK, idiomatic) safely guarded; locked away."
      ],
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        "UK",
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
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      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/En-au-under_lock_and_key.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "under lock and key"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.