unlock

English

Etymology

From Middle English unloken, unlouken, onlouken, from Old English onlūcan (“to unlock”), equivalent to un- +‎ lock. Cognate with Dutch ontluiken (“to unlock”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɒk

Verb

unlock (third-person singular simple present unlocks, present participle unlocking, simple 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.

   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

   • 2019 October, “Funding for 20tph East London line service”, in Modern Railways, page 18:

     The combination of the new station and road improvements is expected to unlock up to 14,000 new homes, with the council saying no more than 2,500 homes can be built at Beaulieu and north east Chelmsford without the station.

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 […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:

     He had come straight up without mishap or swerving off his course, and his shut teeth unlocked.

Translations

to undo or open a lock

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: կողպածը բանալ (koġpacə banal)
• Asturian: despesllar
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 開鎖／开锁 (zh) (kāisuǒ), 开锁 (zh) (kāisuǒ)

• Czech: odemknout
• Dutch: openen (nl), ontgrendelen (nl)
• Esperanto: malŝlosi
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: avata lukko, avata lukitus, avata (fi) (unlock and open)
• French: déverrouiller (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: aufschließen (de), entriegeln (de)
• Greek: ξεκλειδώνω (el) (xekleidóno)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: ताला खोलना (hi) (tālā kholnā)
• Hungarian: kinyit (hu)
• Icelandic: opna (is) (“open” generally, usually used), taka úr lás (refers to disabling the lock on a door that usually locks when closed, so that the door will stay unlocked upon closing)
• Ido: desklefagar (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: aprire (it)
• Japanese: 錠をあける (じょうをあける, jō o akeru), 鍵をあける (かぎをあける, kagi o akeru)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Lao: ໄຂກະແຈ (khai ka chǣ)
• Latvian: atbloķēt
• Lithuanian: atrakinti
• Macedonian: отклучува (otklučuva)
• Maltese: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Old English: onlūcan
• Portuguese: destrancar
• Romanian: descuia (ro)
• Russian: отпира́ть (ru) impf (otpirátʹ), отпере́ть (ru) pf (otperétʹ)
• Spanish: abrir (es), abrir con llave, desatrancar (es), desbloquear (es)
• Swedish: låsa upp (sv)
• Thai: ไข (th) (kǎi)
• Tibetan: སྒོ་ལྕགས་ཕྱེ (sgo lcags phye)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

give access to something

• Dutch: ontgrendelen (nl)
• Finnish: avata (fi)
• German: freischalten (de), entsperren (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: desbloquear (pt), destravar
• Romanian: debloca (ro)
• Spanish: desbloquear (es)

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.

References

• “unlock”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.