LOCKED (UP) Synonyms: 50 Similar and Opposite Words

locked (up)

verb

past tense of lock (up)

as in imprisoned

to put in or as if in prison if they catch you, they're going to lock you up and throw away the key!

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for locked (up)

Verb

He’s been imprisoned since before she was born, sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

— Vasco Cotovio, CNN Money, 15 July 2026
Officials say that since the state of emergency was imposed, more than 92,480 people accused of belonging to gangs or having ties to them have been imprisoned.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 15 July 2026

Definition of imprisoned

Verb

One of our young people in Tulsa, Oklahoma, interned at a company in their risk management department.

— Byron V. Garrett, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
Truell, a New York City native, interned at Google, while Sanger, a member of MIT’s squash team, interned at Bridgewater Associates.

— Bloomberg, Mercury News, 17 June 2026

Definition of interned

Verb

While more than 1 million Rohingya have fled across the border to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where they are mostly confined to overcrowded and squalid camps, roughly 630,000 still live in Rakhine, according to Human Rights Watch.

— Lex Harvey, CNN Money, 16 July 2026
The breakthrough is currently confined to precision laboratory settings.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 16 July 2026

Definition of confined

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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locked out

locked (up)

locker

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“Locked (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/locked%20%28up%29. Accessed 18 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of locked (up)

verb

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