Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (also padlock) the vagina.

1568		T. Buckley ‘Libel of Oxford’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 315: In Lent great symnelles be full ryfe, / [...] Keyes open lockes in payne of life, / This belly forty poundes has cost.
1605		Marston Dutch Curtezan IV i: Maides in your Night-railes, Looke well to your light [...] Keepe close your lockes, And down your smocks.
1611		Middleton No Wit or Help like a Womans (1657) II i: They have no reason to have a Lock but the Master must have a Key to.
1624		R. Davenport City-Night-Cap (1661) I 5: Confidence makes not so many Cuckolds in England, but Craft picks open more Padlocks in Italy.
1633		W. Mountfort Launching of the Mary III i: Thinke you, your golden keye shall picke the locke of my vnspotted honour?
1656		Mennis & Smith ‘Epigrams’ Musarum Deliciae (1817) 31: Husband (said she) I swear by cock [...] The dev’ll himselfe can’t keep that lock / Which every key can open.
1661		G. Rogers Horn Exalted 72: [If lovers] have a mind to be at this lock, all your bolts and bars shall not impede their slipperines.
1723		Rape of the Bride vi: There is no other Intention hereby, but [...] Amusment and Diversion [...] especially [of] the Ladies, the Lock is before ’em, and all have Liberty to try and fit their Key.
1772		G. Stevens ‘The Sentiment Song’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 125: More upright fore-knowledge that Lock is commanding [...] That Lock has the Casket of Cupid within it, / So – Here’s to the Key Lads, – the Critical Minute.
1794		‘Una’s Lock’ Burns Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 205: Instantly to catch the lock / That scatters pretty Una’s piss.
1833		‘The Turncock’ Regular Thing, and No Mistake 70: Perhaps her cock, sir, If t’would not run, ’twas very likely damaged in the lock, sir.
1841		‘Woman’s Dial’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 6: Ruth’s lock was a trouble, for, feeling an itch / That no key she could get would come up to the pitch.
1861		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 3/4: Mrs Locke [...] is around Auburn and Middle streets so much by night tnat we suspect that there is considerable lock picking done there.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 66: Clé, The penis: cf. ‘lock’ = female pudendum.
1905–07		Bawdy N.Y. State MS. n.p.: To put the key into the lock full half an hour he tried, / At last he was successful and then the maiden cried.

(b) (UK Und.) a place for storing stolen goods.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: The Lock, the Magazine or Warehouse whither the Thieves carry Stolen Goods.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera I i: Betty hath brought more Goods into our Lock to-year that any five of the Gang. [Ibid.] III iii: lockit: Boy, can’st thou tell me where thy Master is to be found? filch: At his Lock, Sir, at the Crooked Billet.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1791		H. Lemoine ‘Education’ in Attic Misc. 116: With Nell he kept a lock, to fence, and tuz.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1824		‘Sonnets for the Fancy’ Egan Boxiana III 622: [as 1791].
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(c) (UK Und.) a receiver of stolen goods.

1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Lock, vid. Fence.
1718		C. Hitchin Conduct of Receivers and Thief-Takers 10: There are several Locks, Fences and flash Pawn Brokers, which are Dealers as well as myself in contraband.
1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 9: They [...] found in the Bundle a great Coat, a Gown, and several other Things of Value, which they sold to a Lock for 24s.
1731		B. Fink ‘15 years of age’ in Ordinary of Newgate Account 25 July 15/1: Persons who buys the Goods of us, which we call LOCKS: There is one B---, a Watch-maker in Fleet-street, a very remarkable Man.
1753		J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 36: They [...] pike directly into the first Rattler; that is, into the first Coach, and so to their Fence or Lock, and napps the Blunt.
1768		(con. 1710–25) Tyburn Chronicle II in Groom (1999) xxvii: A Fence, or a Lock A Receiver of stolen Goods.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Lock see Fence. A buyer or Receiver of Stoln Goods, Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(d) (UK Und.) the office of a corrupt magistrate.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: lock [...] a trading justice’s office.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.

(a) a chance; thus rum lock, bad luck, stand a queer lock, to have a poor chance.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: He stood a queer Lock; i.e. He stood an indifferent Chance, &c.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
1748		Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict. (5th edn).
c.1790		New Flash Song [broadside ballad] But the very day a rum lock did sight, / For we were hobbl’d.
1832		in Egan Bk of Sports 146: The Swells can’t do me in the pit, / I’m down to ev’ry lock!

(b) character, e.g. stand a queer lock, to bear an indifferent character.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 52: ‘The cove stood a queer lock,’ the fellow had a bad character.

(c) an occupation, a way of life; thus cut a lock, to conduct a way of life.

1789		G. Parker Life’s Painter 136: I say, how are you? slang us your mauly; what lock do you cut now?
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) II 520: †lock To be at his old lock, to follow his old practices.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 114: Lock, rum, being in good health; rich, clever, expert.

(d) a scheme, a plan.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Lock. A scheme, a mode. I must fight that lock; I must try that scheme.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1811].

(e) (US) a certainty; that which is guaranteed as good.

1935		M. Fulcher ‘Believe Me’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 13 Apr. 12/1: Their dances are the locks and really something to write about.
1945		W.R. Burnett Tomorrow’s Another Day 170: ‘With that boy Lonnie handling things, we’re a lead-pipe cinch, a lock. Am I right?’.
1951		D. Maurer in Lang. Und. (1981) 218: Lock or mortal lock...a race to be won easily by a certain horse....A ‘sure thing’ bet....By implication, a fixed race.
1959		(con. 1900-29) L. Katcher Big Bankroll 132: It looked as though the 1921 running of the [Travers Stakes] was a ‘lock’—a sure thing—for Harry Payne Whitney’s great mare Prudery.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 24: ‘Well, we ain’t gunna have no such worry for a while anyway.’ ‘That’s a lock.’.
1984		D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 179: They’re a mortal lock to lose twelve games.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 253: Paradise Palms was a lead but not a lock.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 57: The word dude was a Top 10 lock in the 60s and early 70s, but in the 80s it was devoured by white culture.
2012		R. Brunet ‘Lucky for Me’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] ‘[T]here’s no such thing as a lock’.

(f) (orig. US) complete control over something.

1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 40: (he owns) the lock – The main man taking the stand; he has the power and complete control.
1980		Treacherous Nhree ‘New Rap Language’ 🎵 Girls on my jock and all on lock.
2011		G. Knight Hood Rat 106: They are running Hackney now. They have the hood on lock.