locker

From lock (lock +‎ -er (patient suffix) or -er (agent noun suffix)) from Old English loc (“fastening, enclosure”), from Proto-Germanic *luką. Cognate with German Loch, Dutch luik, and Dutch loket.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlɒk.ə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑ.kɚ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈlɔk.ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒkə(ɹ)

locker (plural lockers)

1. A type of storage compartment with a lock, usually used to store personal possessions for public use, such as in schools, railway stations, place of work, gyms, sports centers.

   The student placed her books in her locker when she arrived at school.

   • 2016 October 8, Donald J. Trump, “Donald J. Trump’s Apology for Vulgar Comments”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     This was locker room talk. I'm not proud of it. I apologize to my family. I apologize to the American people. Certainly I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.

   • 2024 February 1, Nell Lewis, “South African innovator’s medicine-dispensing lockers win prestigious prize”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Neo Hutiri is the creator of Pelebox, a system of internet-enabled lockers that dispense medication for chronic conditions to patients, helping to cut down queues and ease pressure on hospital resources.

2. A lockable cubicle.

   She was afraid to come out of the locker.

3. A storage compartment on a ship, not necessarily one that can be locked.
4. (rare) One who locks something.

   The locker of the trapped chest must be careful, so as not to spring the trap.

5. (automotive) A locking differential.
6. (historical) A customs officer who guards a warehouse.
   • 1845, Reports of cases argued and determined in the courts of Exchequer & Exchequer Chamber, volume 12:

     The actual delivery of the goods is then effected by any person bearing an order from the importer, called a merchant's order, and addressed to the warehouse-keeper, upon the presentment of which the warehouseman delivers the goods, having previously obtained the signature of the locker to it as a proof that the duties have been paid […]

7. (Louisiana) A closet.

• (storage compartment): footlocker

• chest
• trunk

• “locker”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “locker”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “locker”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “locker”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

• relock, rockel

Borrowed from English locker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɔ.kər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: loc‧ker
• Rhymes: -ɔkər

locker m (plural lockers, diminutive lockertje n)

1. a locker (lockable storage compartment)

   Synonym: kluis

From an adjectival form of Middle High German lücke / lugge, with further origin uncertain; perhaps related to Lücke (“gap”) and Loch (“hole”),^[1] via semantic development along the lines of "gap" > "loose opening" > "loose".

• Audio:

  (file)

locker (strong nominative masculine singular lockerer, comparative lockerer, superlative am lockersten)

1. loose
2. relaxed

   Synonym: entspannt

   Antonym: verkrampft

locker

1. loosely
2. relaxedly, casually
3. (with an estimate) easily (expressing confidence in the value)

   Es waren locker hundert Leute auf der Party.

   There were easily a hundred people at the party.

locker

1. inflection of lockern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative

• “locker” in Duden online
• “locker” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “locker”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

Unadapted borrowing from English locker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlokeɾ/ [ˈlo.keɾ]
• Rhymes: -okeɾ

locker m (plural lockeres)

1. (Latin America) locker

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.