lock up

verb locks up · locking up · locked up

1. transitive To imprison or incarcerate (someone). In 1970, a new era of "getting tough" on young offenders really began to gather momentum with the incoming Conservative government. The number of juveniles locked up each year increased by 500% between 1965 and 1980.

   Similar: send away, shut away

2. transitive To put (something) away in a locked location for safekeeping; (occasionally, chiefly humorously) to sequester (a person) in a similar way. Please lock up all valuables in the safe before leaving.
3. intransitive To close (and often lock) all doors and windows (of a place) securely.
4. transitive To lock (a door, window, etc.). That door still needs to be locked up.
5. intransitive To cease responding. When I press this button, the program locks up.

   Similar: freeze, freeze up, hang, hang up

6. transitive To cause (a program) to cease responding or to freeze. If your password contains a particular string of letters, entering it can lock up the login form.
7. intransitive To stop moving; to seize.
8. intransitive, of a wheel To stop spinning due to excessive braking torque. Due to the engines-out condition, the landing was conducted without the brake antiskid and normal breaking^([sic]) systems. Because the emergency brake accumulator only provides for a limited amount of brake applications, full braking was applied and retained at the second touch down, resulting in t
9. To lose one's forward momentum; to freeze.
10. intransitive To (mistakenly) cause or have one of one's wheels to lock up (stop spinning). Twelve laps later, Leclerc locked up at the first chicane and clattered over the run-off area. Again, Hamilton got a run on him, and this time Leclerc defended robustly through the flat-out Curva Grande, moving very late to block Hamilton to the Ferrari's left.
11. transitive To invest in something long term.
12. intransitive To travel through a flight of locks on a waterway in an uphill direction.

    Opposite: lock down

13. obsolete To fasten quoins securely with a mallet and a shooting stick.
14. slang, transitive To assure success in or control of (something). He locked up the championship with that move.
15. intransitive To enter a state of mechanical alignment. You will roll the second tape for about 15 seconds until the tape "locks up" with house sync.