key
- noun
- /ki/
- She forgot her key and couldn't get into the house.
- turn the key
- open with a key
- lock and key
So I had the keys to the pool.
- So I had the keys to the pool.
- I could not get on with car keys, laptops, TV's.
- But there are those who have keys, and those keys can open the prisons.
- You don't use a key because the lock is busted.
- There are more words on the hotel key than there are in that book.
- It was just dropping off someone's keys that they left in the Uber.
- Voila, their car keys are in their pocket.
- You just were given the keys to that.
- And there is only one entrance key to the void which binds.
Examples
-
Books were kept under lock and key, sometimes chained to shelves.
Academic text (2015) -
So I just walked out without my keys and I'm now locked out.
-
I just need to find the key to the lock.
-
Give me my key, please.
-
The door of the room was locked, and he took his key out and opened it.
Fiction book (1990) -
Sidney, do you still keep your key under the mat?
-
And then I have my little key for my PO Box.
-
Her father had another key made to the archive room and gave it to her solemnly.
Fiction book (1990) -
Here are your keys.
-
"Nope," Richard says and displays the car keys he lifted from Jeff's pocket.
Fiction book (1990)
Idioms
Compounds
- Specialized
A key on Apple keyboards that you press with other keys to use shortcuts
- Specialized
A secure place on a computer that stores passwords and secret codes for apps and the system
- Specialized
A key on a keyboard that moves the cursor to the right to indent or align text
- Archaic
A small lever device used to send messages as dots and dashes by making and breaking an electric circuit
- Specialized
A key on a computer keyboard that you press with other keys to do special actions
- Specialized
A winged fruit from maple or ash trees with one seed that spins as it falls
- Specialized
A set of sharps or flats at the start of written music showing its key
A repeated decorative border of straight lines that turn in square corners, often on vases and buildings
- Specialized
A small metal tool with a six-sided end for turning screws with a matching hole
- Specialized
A small metal tool with a six-sided tip that turns screws with a six-sided hole in the head
- Archaic
A small metal key with a square hole used to wind old pocket devices that tell time
How Universal
Surface Forms
Etymology
Key comes from an old English word cæg for the small metal tool used to open locks, so a key is literally something that 'opens' a lock.