lock up

1. 1.

   secure by locking

   “lock up the house before you go on vacation”

   Broaderfasten
2. 2.

   place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape

   “The parents locked her daughter up for the weekend”

   “She locked her jewels in the safe”

   Synonymslock inlock awaylockput awayshut upshut away

   Broaderconfine

Questions about lock up

What does lock up mean?

lock up means "secure by locking". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for lock up?

Close synonyms include lock in, lock away, lock, put away, shut up. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is lock up a common word?

lock up is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.