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Glite Dictionary
🔓 To open 🗝️ To release
to unlock

to unlock

84 1.3
Make a skill, chance, or secret become available
  • verb
  • /ʌnˈlɑk/
translation icon : desbloquear
  • My God, I said again when I finally managed to unlock my brain.
  • unlock the potential
  • key to unlocking
  • unlock the secrets

Here's the thing, Remy and I have unlocked a new passion.

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Examples

  • And I was really trying to find a way to unlock the creative process.

  • Technology is a tool to unlock learning and expand the horizons of students.

    Academic text (1996)

  • It's about trying to look at this world, unlock it, understand it.

    True Geordie

  • All we have to do is look inside our hearts and unlock the magic within.

  • My job is to find the key that will unlock their curiosity.

    Academic text (2009)

  • But now researchers are using it to unlock ancient human mysteries.

  • Every seed is a plant, waiting to be unlocked.

    Master Gardener (2023)

  • Making music is about unlocking people's hearts.

  • The foreboding I'd always carried with me was unlocked by his sister's words.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The technician worked quickly to unlock the door that had been stuck for days.

Synonyms

to free
vsto unlock
337 1.0

To release someone or something that is held

focuses only on removing confinement or restriction, not on availability
to set free
vsto unlock
218 2.7

To let a person or animal go after keeping them in a place where they could not leave

is a single verb form rather than a multiword expression
to liberate
vsto unlock
104 4.3

Set someone free from prison or unfair control

is used more for political or formal removal of control
to let loose
vsto unlock
13 3.8

Set something free from being held or controlled

emphasizes removing limits rather than allowing free movement or action
to unchain
vsto unlock
6 4.1

Remove chains and other things that hold someone so they are free

covers general removal of restraint not limited to chain removal
to unshackle
vsto unlock
5 6.5

Free someone or something from limits and control

does the same but does not stress physical versus figurative use
to untether
vsto unlock
1 6.2

To free someone or something from limits so they can act more freely

is broader, covering any removal of restriction not only cutting attachments

Antonyms

to confine
215 4.2

Keep someone or something within limits, for example in a small space

Phrasal Verbs

to unlock safe
1 3.2

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

How Free

to liberate
104 4.3
to unlock
84 1.3

Surface Forms

unlock infinitive
unlocked past
unlocked past participle
unlocking present participle
unlocks third person singular

Morphology

unlock = lock (transparent) = un + lock

The sense of releasing from confinement or restraint is a direct extension of reversing a 'lock', and thus inferable from 'un-' + 'lock'.

Etymology

Unlock comes from the same parts un- ('not') and lock ('something held shut'), and by extension it means to 'release' or 'open' what was hidden or blocked, which is why we say something can unlock your 'potential' or 'opportunities'.