English Explanatory Dictionary

Sherlock

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. An English surname transferred from the nickname.
  2. A male given name transferred from the surname, of rare usage.
  3. A detective, especially used sarcastically to address somebody who has stated the obvious.
verb
  1. To deduce.
  2. To search.
  3. To obsolete a unique feature in third-party software by introducing a similar or identical feature to the OS or a first-party program/app.
verb
  1. Alternative letter-case form of Sherlock.

Pronunciation

/ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/ En-au-Sherlock.ogg

Word forms

Sherlock Sherlocks Sherlocking Sherlocked

Etymology

Supposedly from an Old English scir-locc (“bright-lock”). One of a group of surnames originally denoting hair colour, parallel to Blacklock, Harlock (Old English har (“grey”)), Silverlock. In the sense of “a detective”, from Sherlock Holmes. In the computing verb sense, refers to the software Sherlock, which in 2002 came to replicate some of the features of an earlier complementary program called Watson.

Synonyms

figure out solve hunt seek

Derived words

Adlock Fawnlock Femlock Johnlock no shit, Sherlock parentlock Potterlock Sheriarty Sherlocked Sherlockian Sherlockiana Sherlockish Sherlocky Sherlolly Sherly Tunalock Wholock
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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