| 释义 |
▪ I. picklock, n.1 and a.1|ˈpɪklɒk|
[f. pick v.1 + lock n.2: see pick-.]
A. n.
1. A person who picks a lock; spec. a thief who opens a door by picking the lock.
1553T. Wilson Rhet. 76 b, I haue one..to whom there is no cofer lockt, nor dore shut.., meanyng that he was a pick⁓lock, and a false verlet. 1651Charleton Ephes. & Cimm. Matrons ii. (1668) 9 Locking the door behind him, with as little noise as a Pick-lock. 1889Daily News 3 Dec. 7/2 She called him a ‘picklock’ and a ‘Paul Pry’.
fig.1614B. Jonson Bart. Fair iii. v, Talke with some crafty fellow, some picklocke o' the Law! 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. II. 37 Sir Thomas Bolen..was called the Pick-lock of Princes. 1929R. Bridges Testament of Beauty i. 21 This picklock Reason is still a-fumbling at the wards.
2. An instrument for picking locks.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Ganzua, a false keye, a picke⁓locke. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. ii. 18 We take him to be a Theefe..for wee haue found vpon him..a strange Pick⁓lock. 1683Crowne City Politiques v. i, I have a picklock in my pocket. 1828W. Sewell Oxf. Prize Ess. 63 A vile Laconian lock, with three stout wards, Which no picklock or nail can reach to open. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 244/1 The..most ingenious picklock ever seen.
fig.1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 393 b, By which picklockes they locke fast the gates of hell, and open the gates of heaven to whom they list. 1702Eng. Theophrast. 72 Money is the very pick-lock that opens the way into all Cabinets and Councils.
B. adj. Used for picking a lock; esp. in pick lock key = A. 2. Also fig.
1607Rowlands Guy Warw. 75 Hell's picklock powder was unknown to men. 1670Lond. Gaz. No. 446/4 A bunch of picklock keys. 1693C. Dryden in Dryden's Juvenal vii. (1697) 174 The well-lung'd Civilian..opens first the Cause, Then with a Pick-lock Tongue perverts the Laws. 1850Chubb Locks & Keys 32 He thought it would be impossible to pick them..by any picklock keys.
▪ II. picklock, n.2 and a.2 Wool Manuf.
[f. pick a. or v.1 7 + lock n.1]
Name for the highest quality of English wool.
1794Foot Agric. 61 (E.D.D.) The dearest class of wool, called ‘picklock’, is estimated at thirty-two pence a pound. 1842J. Bischoff Woollen Manuf. II. 114, I have..divided them [wools] into six classes,..1st class—the pick-lock and prime. 2nd class—the choice and super... 5th class—livery and short coarse. 6th class—pick-lock, grey, &c. &c. 1884W. S. B. McLaren Spinning (ed. 2) 17 In the woollen trade the following names are common for English wool:—picklock, which, as the name implies, is the choicest of all; prime, which is very similar; choice, a very little stronger; super, from the shoulders [etc.]. |