Pl. lock-outs (erron. locks-out). [f. vbl. phr. lock out: see LOCK v. 5.] An act of ‘locking out’ a body of workers; i.e., a refusal on the part of an employer, or a number of employers acting in concert, to furnish work to their operatives until certain conditions have been assented to by the latter collectively.
1860. All Year Round, No. 57. 161. Lock-outs competing against operatives’ intimidation.
1863. W. G. Blaikie, Better Days for Working People, iv. (1864), 91. Strikes on the one side have their counterpart in locks-out on the other.
