Forms: 1 loc, locc, 3–7 locke, 4–5 loke, 4–6 lokk(e, 5, 7 lok, look(e, (8–9 dial. in sense 2 luck, Sc. loake), 5– lock. [OE. loc masc. = OS. ? loc (MS. loci, glossing cesariem; MDu. locke, Du. lok fem.), OHG. loc masc. (MHG. loc masc., pl. locke, mod.G. locke fem.), ON. lokk-r masc. (Sw. lock, Da. lok):—OTeut. *lokko-z, *lukko-z:-pre-Teut. *lugno-s. Cognate words in Teut. are ON. lykkja loop, bend (Norw. lykke, Da. løkke), mod.Icel. (h)lykkur a bend.
The pre-Teut. root *lŭg- (: leug- : loug-) prob. meant ‘to bend’ (cf. Gr. λύγος withy, whence λυγοῦν, λυγίζειν to bend; also Lith. palugnas compliant); it is formally coincident, or perh. really identical, with the root of LOCK sb.2, LOUK v.]
1. One of the portions into which a head of hair, a beard, etc., naturally divides itself; a tress. In pl. often = the hair of the head collectively. † Fickle under her lock: ? having guile in her head.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 28. Antiæ, loccas.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xviii. 138. Eft hie ne sceoldon hiera loccas lætan weaxan.
971. Blickl. Hom., 243. Ne an loc of eowrum heafde forwyrð.
c. 1205. Lay., 18449. [Heo] sluȝen ȝeond þan feldes falewe lockes.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 330/237. His lockes weren ful hore.
13[?]. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 2207. But sche was fikel, vnder hir lok, And hadde a parti of Eue smok.
c. 1374. Chaucer, To Scriv., 3. Vnder þy long lokkes þowe most haue þe scalle.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 459. His lookes full louely lemond as gold.
c. 1430. Chev. Assigne, 254. And þenne she lepte to hym & kawȝte hym by þe lokke.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 257. Those blessed lockes of heare … whiche in lyfe moost semely did become that gracyous heed.
1612. Capt. Smith, Map Virginia, 37. The lockes of haire with their skinnes be hanged on a line vnto two trees.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 361. With these … the Spirits Elect Bind thir resplendent locks.
1712. Pope (title), The Rape of the Lock.
1740. Lady Pomfret, Lett. (1805), II. 81. They wear … their heads dressed in locks with jewels.
1794. Burns, Song, Lassie wi’ the lint-white locks.
1839. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., iii. (1847), 30. The hair of his head hanging down in long locks covered his back and shoulders.
1859. W. Collins, Q. of Hearts (1875), 26. She sometimes begged for a lock of his hair.
† b. A lovelock; also, a tress of artificial hair.
1600. Jacke Drums Entert. (Pasq. & Kath.), I. (1601), B 4 b. And when his period comes not roundly off, [he] takes tole of the tenth haire of his Bourbon locke.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., III. ii. 1209. He whose thin sire dwells in a smokye roufe, Must take Tobacco and must weare a locke.
1603. in Brand, Hist. Newcastle (1789), II. 232. [Apprentices shall not] weare their haire longe nor locks at their ears like ruffians.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 29 Oct. My wife (who is mighty fine and with a new fair pair of locks).
1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, III. Wks. 1720, I. 368. I have … all manner of Tires for the head, Locks, Tours, Frouzes, and so forth.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 389/1. Women usually wear such Borders [of Hair], which they call Curls or Locks when they hang over their ears.
c. transf. and fig. (esp. of the foliage of trees).
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 56 b. Penroyall … It hath lockes verie like Isope.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Nov., 125. The faded lockes fall from the loftie oke.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 1066. While the Winds Blow moist and keen, shattering the graceful locks Of those fair spreading Trees.
1819. Shelley, Ode to West Wind, ii. 9. The locks of the approaching storm.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bound, Poems I. 188. Let the locks of the lightning Flash coiling me round!
1851. C. L. Smith, trans. Tasso, III. lxxvi. The grand oaks Which had a thousand times their locks renewed.
2. Of wool, cotton, etc.: A tuft or flock; a loose fragment, a shred, esp. one ‘twisted on the finger of a spinner at the distaff’ (Halliwell).
In pl. used by wool-dealers for: The lowest class of remnants after the removal of the fleece, consisting of the shortest wool, coming from the legs and belly of the sheep.
c. 1300. Battle Abbey Custumals (Camden), 56. Et habere lockes de ventre ovium.
1425. in Kennett, Par. Antiq. (1818), II. 251. De lana fracta, videlicet lokys, collecta in tonsura ovium.
1463–4. Rolls of Parlt., V. 503/2. By puttyng in Flecez, lokkes of Wolle, and peces of moche worse Wolle.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 8. Preamb., Great quantitie of Wolls … hath ben sorted … and thereof is made moche Lokkys and Refuse.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 146. At the leaste waye, she may haue the lockes of the shepe, eyther to make clothes or blankettes.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 477. What a noyse is here, and not so much as a locke of wolle.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 156. Money … yearly made by sale of locks, belts, and tags of Sheep.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 81. A lock of wooll falls without noise.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 476. Their Distails full With carded Locks of blue Milesian Wooll.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 229, ¶ 3. He goes into the next Pool with a little Lock of Wool in his Mouth.
1801. Bloomfield, Rural T. (1802), 3. She … laid aside her Lucks and Twitches.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., i. 25. The clotted locks of cotton … are caught by the various iron pins, and torn open fibre by fibre. Ibid., iii. 97. The locks of wool are dissected, and the fibres loosened one from another.
1849. Noad, Electricity (ed. 3), 444. He took a lock of cotton two inches long.
1851. S. Judd, Margaret, I. ii. (1871), 6. There is a bunch of lucks down cellar.
1883. Leisure Hour, 243/1. The loose fragments of wool … are made up into bales by themselves under the name of ‘locks.’
attrib. 1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xvii. 365. Inferior wool, known in the accounts as broken, refuse, or lock wool.
1899. Daily News, 23 May, 10/3. Fur machinists for lock linings wanted.
3. A quantity, usually a small one, of any article, esp. of hay or straw; a handful, armful, a bundle. Now dial. Also in Sc. legal phrase lock and gowpen.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 311/1. Lok of hey, or oþer lyke, vola.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1879/2. His lying was upon the cold ground, hauing not one lock of straw, nor cloth to couer him.
1575. Gascoigne, Posies, Flowers, 38. Fewe men wyll lend a locke of heye, but for to gaine a loade.
1629. Orkney Witch Trial, in N. Brit. Advertiser, Oct. 1894. [He] fearing your evill, went to the barne and geve yow ane look corne.
a. 1635. Corbet, Poems (1807), 95. So good clothes ne’re lay in stable Upon a lock of hay.
1661. D. North, in R. North, Lives (1826), II. 308. Good grass which the adjacent inhabitants in summer cut down and make into locks.
1673. A. Walker, Leez Lachrymans, 8. A lock or strik of Flax.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 131, ¶ 9. I suppose this Letter will find thee picking of Daisies, or smelling to a Lock of Hay.
1804. R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ball., 89. Monie went there [Burgh Races] a lock money to bet.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xiii. note. The expression lock for a small quantity … is still preserved … in a legal description as ‘the lock and gowpen’ or small quantity and handful.
1823. New Monthly Mag., IX. 454/2. Spreading a good lock of tar round the bottom of the bush.
1827. Carlyle, Germ. Rom., I. 47. Gleaning, if so were that a lock of wheat might still be gathered from these neglected ears.
1843. Lever, J. Hinton, xxi. (1844), 142. It isn’t a lock of bacon or a bag of meal he cares for.
1847. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., VIII. II. 283. Children following the waggons to pick the locks of clover left by the pitchers.
1874. T. Hardy, Madding Crowd, iii. I’ll curl up to sleep in a lock of straw.
