unlock
Verb

unlock (unlocks, present participle unlocking; past and past participle unlocked)

  1. (transitive) To undo or open a lock or something locked by, for example, turning a key, or selecting a combination.
    I unlocked the door and walked in.
  2. (transitive) To obtain access to something.
    I unlocked the dictionary article so it could be edited.
    This computer game is shareware, but you can pay for a code to unlock the full version.
  3. (transitive) To disclose or reveal previously unknown knowledge.
    The discovery of a clue unlocked the mystery.
  4. (intransitive) To be or become unfastened or unrestrained.
    • 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage: A Novel, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, OCLC 6868219 ↗:
      He had come straight up without mishap or swerving off his course, and his shut teeth unlocked.
Translations Translations Noun

unlock (plural unlocks)

  1. The act of unlocking something.
    • 1998, Steven Herberts, The Correctional Officer Inside Prisons (page 38)
      Unlike modern, automated prisons, each cell here was locked and unlocked manually with a large skeleton key. The first duty was to get a proper head count of each inmate, insuring each was alive. Once done, an unlock was conducted.
    • 2011, Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, ‎Shaz Qadeer, Computer Aided Verification: 23rd International Conference
      The instructions between a lock and an unlock form a critical section.



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary