Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

lock, stock and barrel

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.96 in modern English

Syllables: lock-, -s-tock- and bar-rel
IPA

33

Scrabble Score

18

Letters

6

Syllables

12

Unique Chars

Meaning

adv

Entirely, completely.

noun

The entirety of a thing, with nothing omitted.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"They want to buy the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel."
"I do not believe I should save £100 by retaining Mrs. Redford, by the time she was raised, altered, and beautified, for, like the Highlandman’s gun, she wants stock, lock, and barrel to put her into repair."
"Supposing the whole Castro regime—lock, stock and barrel—were to be swept out by counter-revolutionaries as effectively as the Batista regime was cleared out[…]"
"Congress are in possession of the flint, powder, gun, lock, stock and barrel, and still we exclaim with the old lady, take away the musket."
"Well, they are men cooks; they don't think of what importance a good cup of tea is to a lady. They don't remember that it is the lock, stock, and barrel of a lady's comforts."
""Sinbad not only gets the keys of the city, he gets the whole lock, stock and barrel!""

Etymology

From the three principal parts of a flintlock. The explanation that it refers to all of a shopkeeper’s possessions—the lock to the door, the stock in trade and the items stored in barrels—is fanciful. First attested in an 1817 letter by the Scottish novelist Walter Scott (see quotation).

Usage

Uncountable

Phrases

bag and baggage everything but the kitchen sink flash in the pan full monty go off half-cocked hook, line and sinker the whole nine yards whole shebang

Frequently Paired Words

bag and baggage everything but the kitchen sink flash in the pan full monty go off half-cocked hook, line and sinker the whole nine yards whole shebang

Synonyms

absolutely all-out tout à fait all the way stone-cold blind altogether stark cold at large at length cap-a-pie

Questions

What does lock, stock and barrel mean?: Entirely, completely.
Where does lock, stock and barrel come from?: From the three principal parts of a flintlock. The explanation that it refers to all of a shopkeeper’s possessions—the lock to the door, the stock in trade and the items stored in barrels—is fanciful. First attested in an 1817 letter by the Scottish novelist Walter Scott (see quotation).

How to pronounce lock, stock and barrel

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