lock away
phrasal verb
locked away; locking away; locks away
1
: to put (something) in a locked container, place, etc.
The jewelry was locked away in a cabinet.
2
: to put (someone) in a locked place (such as a prison) for a long period of time
lock away a criminal
The state locked their sister away in a psychiatric hospital.
3
: to keep (oneself) alone in a room or place for a long period of time
He locked himself away in his room while he studied.
He was locked away in his room while he studied.
Examples of lock away in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Yet experts estimate the state likely has hundreds of billions of dollars in trust assets locked away in nondescript office buildings or trust companies, offering little to no visibility to the outside world.
—
Robert Frank, CNBC, 13 Aug. 2024
Keeping trees intact ensures all that carbon stays stored and supporting careful reforestation efforts ensures additional carbon gets locked away.
—Lauren Leffer, Popular Science, 24 July 2024
He’s still locked away in his cabin, sucking down those blue smoothies.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2024
Temperatures in 2023 were so high — and the droughts and wildfires that came with them were so severe — that forests in various parts of the world wilted and burned enough to have degraded the ability of the land to lock away carbon dioxide and act as a check on global warming, the study said.
—Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 26 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for lock away 
Robert Frank, CNBC, 13 Aug. 2024
Keeping trees intact ensures all that carbon stays stored and supporting careful reforestation efforts ensures additional carbon gets locked away.
—Lauren Leffer, Popular Science, 24 July 2024
He’s still locked away in his cabin, sucking down those blue smoothies.
—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2024
Temperatures in 2023 were so high — and the droughts and wildfires that came with them were so severe — that forests in various parts of the world wilted and burned enough to have degraded the ability of the land to lock away carbon dioxide and act as a check on global warming, the study said.
—Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 26 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for lock away
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lock away.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Lock away.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lock%20away. Accessed 8 Sep. 2024.
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