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Glite Dictionary
🗝️ A lock-opening tool 🗝️ To open a lock
to picklock

to picklock

8.8
To open a lock without a key using a small metal tool
  • verb
  • /ˈpɪkˌlɒk/
  • NSFW
translation icon : forzar
  • Using a simple metal tool, he managed to picklock the old chest that had been locked for decades.

Examples

  • When the key broke in the lock, she had to picklock it to get inside.

  • He tried to picklock the door to gain access to the abandoned building.

  • Hire some actors to come in and create a giant disturbance, in the course of which enough people would get careless, leave the offices of the owner/manager, and allow me the space to picklock my way in unseen, with a couple of minutes left over for bomb disposal.

    Fiction book (2001)

Synonyms

to unlock
vsto picklock
212 1.0

To open a lock using a key or code

opens secured mechanisms without the correct access device by manipulating internal parts
to lock pick
vsto picklock
2 7.7

To open a lock without a key by using tools

is the same action but done with a single thin instrument rather than general tools
to unlock safe
vsto picklock
1 3.2

Open a strong box that holds money or jewelry by releasing its lock

uses a thin instrument to manipulate the securing mechanism without the correct access device

Antonyms

to lock
∞ 1.0

To fasten something with a key so other people cannot open it

Surface Forms

picklock infinitive
picklocked past
picklocked past participle
picklocking present participle
picklocks third person singular

Morphology

picklock = pick + lock (transparent) = pick + lock

The meaning is directly compositional: 'pick' names the action/tool and 'lock' names the object being opened.

Etymology

Picklock comes from pick (a small pointed tool) and lock, so to picklock a door is to open it with that tool instead of a key. That's why to picklock means to get into a lock by hand, often without permission.