sherlock
English · Thesaurus
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Sherlock¹
- /ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/
Where it comes from
Supposedly from an Old English scir-locc (“bright-lock”).
One of a group of surnames originally denoting hair colour, parallel to Blacklock, Harlock (Old English har (“grey”)), Silverlock.
In the sense of “a detective”, from Sherlock Holmes.
In the computing verb sense, refers to the software Sherlock, which in 2002 came to replicate some of the features of an earlier complementary program called Watson.
proper noun Sherlocks
- An English surname transferred from the nickname.
- A male given name transferred from the surname, of rare usage.
- A detective, especially used sarcastically to address somebody who has stated the obvious. — Where that arrow on the map says 'You are here', that must be where we are. — Yeah, well done Sherlock.
verb Sherlocks · Sherlocking · Sherlocked
-
To deduce.
"Anybody could have Sherlocked at a glance," sniffed young Kennilworth, "that it had been packed by a crazy person!"
Similar: figure out, solve
- To search. That afternoon when the boys were in the field Mr. Frickstad sherlocked around in the tents and under the cots looking for a missing rocking-chair.
- To obsolete a unique feature in third-party software by introducing a similar or identical feature to the OS or a first-party program/app. The thing software developers fear most is being "sherlocked".
sherlock²
verb sherlocks · sherlocking · sherlocked
- Alternative letter-case form of Sherlock
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: pi, operative, private detective, private investigator, private eye, sheriff, kelk, brown, buck, pope, lord, spain, turnbull, jacobson, fleming, hobby
Talk about this word "sherlock." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sherlock. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. sherlock. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sherlock "sherlock." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sherlock.Cite this
@misc{sherlock_2026,
title = {sherlock},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sherlock},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
