Meaning & use
lock off
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Meanings
verbphrasal verb
To block or seal an area, room or route with a lock or barrier so nobody can use or enter it.
Grammar: Takes an object, and the object can come before or after off: lock off the room or lock the room off.
Patterns
- lock something off
- lock off something
Police locked off the street after the accident.
The caretaker locked off the east wing while the floor was being repaired.
They locked the stairwell off to stop visitors wandering upstairs.
verbphrasal verbspecialist
To fix a camera firmly in position so it does not move while filming a shot.
Grammar: Takes an object: lock off the camera.
Patterns
- lock off a camera
- lock a camera off
The crew locked off the camera so the actors could walk through an unmoving frame.
We locked off the shot on a tripod and filmed for an hour.
She locked the camera off before pressing record.
Word forms
| third person singular | locks off |
|---|---|
| past tense | locked off |
| past participle | locked off |
| -ing form | locking off |
Common combinations
- lock off an area
- Officers locked off the area around the building.
- lock off a road
- The council locked off the road during the festival.
- lock off a shot
- The director asked her to lock off the shot.
- lock off the camera
- Lock off the camera before the actors arrive.
Synonyms and how they differ
- seal off
- Seal off stresses closing every way in, while lock off suggests using a lock or fixed barrier.
- cordon off
- Cordon off usually means marking a boundary with tape or people, which is lighter than physically locking a space.
- close off
- Close off is the broadest and says nothing about how the closing is done.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: lock off or lock out?
lock off vs lock out
Lock out means to keep someone outside, such as forgetting your keys. Lock off blocks off a space or fixes a camera.
Practice
Before the actors came in, the director asked the operator to ___ the camera so the frame would stay still.
Choose one answer.
Lock off is the film term for fixing a camera in place. Lock out would mean keeping the camera outside, and lock up means to secure a building.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lock off”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.