# locking

Pronunciation: say "LOK-ing" US /ˈlɑkɪŋ/, UK /ˈlɒkɪŋ/

## Noun

1. Gerund of lock. — gerund of lock: the act by which something is locked.
   - Simple: Gerund of lock. Use it to name the act of locking something.
   - _The locking of the vault is timed to happen automatically at closing._
   - _Careful locking of every exit is part of the nightly routine._
3. The use of a lock or a mutex to restrict access to a section of code to at most one process at a time.
   - Simple: A way to let only one program use part of the code at a time, so they do not clash.
   - _The database relies on locking to ensure only one transaction modifies a row at a time._
   - _Fine-grained locking improves concurrency by guarding small sections of code separately._

## Verb

2. Present participle of lock. — present participle and gerund of lock
   - Simple: Present participle of lock. Use this form for something happening right now.
   - _The guard is locking each entrance before midnight._
   - _While locking the car, she dropped her keys on the driveway._

## Origin

Formed from the word "lock" combined with the suffix "-ing".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/locking (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).