(n.) An instrument by means of which the bolt of a lock is shot or drawn; usually, a removable metal instrument fitted to the mechanism of a particular lock and operated by turning in its place.
(n.) An instrument which is turned like a key in fastening or adjusting any mechanism; as, a watch key; a bed key, etc.
(n.) That part of an instrument or machine which serves as the means of operating it; as, a telegraph key; the keys of a pianoforte, or of a typewriter.
(n.) A position or condition which affords entrance, control, pr possession, etc.; as, the key of a line of defense; the key of a country; the key of a political situation. Hence, that which serves to unlock, open, discover, or solve something unknown or difficult; as, the key to a riddle; the key to a problem.
(n.) That part of a mechanism which serves to lock up, make fast, or adjust to position.
(n.) A piece of wood used as a wedge.
(n.) The last board of a floor when laid down.
(n.) A keystone.
(n.) That part of the plastering which is forced through between the laths and holds the rest in place.
(n.) A wedge to unite two or more pieces, or adjust their relative position; a cotter; a forelock.
(n.) A bar, pin or wedge, to secure a crank, pulley, coupling, etc., upon a shaft, and prevent relative turning; sometimes holding by friction alone, but more frequently by its resistance to shearing, being usually embedded partly in the shaft and partly in the crank, pulley, etc.
(n.) An indehiscent, one-seeded fruit furnished with a wing, as the fruit of the ash and maple; a samara; -- called also key fruit.
(n.) A family of tones whose regular members are called diatonic tones, and named key tone (or tonic) or one (or eight), mediant or three, dominant or five, subdominant or four, submediant or six, supertonic or two, and subtonic or seven. Chromatic tones are temporary members of a key, under such names as " sharp four," "flat seven," etc. Scales and tunes of every variety are made from the tones of a key.
(n.) The fundamental tone of a movement to which its modulations are referred, and with which it generally begins and ends; keynote.
(n.) Fig: The general pitch or tone of a sentence or utterance.
(v. t.) To fasten or secure firmly; to fasten or tighten with keys or wedges.
Example Sentences:
(1) Community involvement is a key element of the Primary Health Care (PHC) approach, and thus an essential topic on a course for managers of Primary Health Care programmes.
(2) A key way of regaining public trust will be reforming the system of remuneration as agreed by the G20.
(3) Instead, the White House opted for a low-key approach, publishing a blogpost profiling Trinace Edwards, a brain-tumour victim who recently discovered she was eligible for Medicaid coverage.
(4) The presence of a few key residues in the amino-terminal alpha-helix of each ligand is sufficient to confer specificity to the interaction.
(5) The key warning from the Fed chair A summary of Bernanke's hearing Earlier... MPs in London quizzed the Bank of England on Libor.
(6) "Seller reports are key to identifying bad buyers and ridding them from our marketplace," says eBay.
(7) It is suggested that the low-density lipoprotein receptors in human fetal liver may play a key role in the regulation of the serum cholesterol levels during gestation.
(8) A key component of a career program should be recognition of a nurse's needs and the program should be evaluated to determine if these needs are met.
(9) As novel antibody therapeutics are developed for different malignancies and require evaluation with cells previously uncharacterized as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) targets, efficient description of key parameters of the assay system expedites the preclinical assessment.
(10) Meanwhile, Hunt has been accused of backtracking on a key recommendation in the official report into Mid Staffs.
(11) The safe motherhood initiative demands an intersectoral, collaborative approach to gynecology, family planning, and child health in which midwifery is the key element.
(12) Acetylcholinesterase is a key enzyme in cholinergic neurotransmission for hydrolyzing acetylcholine and has been shown to possess arylacylamidase activity in addition to esterase activity.
(13) If Lagarde had been placed under formal investigation in the Tapie case, it would have risked weakening her position and further embarrassing both the IMF and France by heaping more judicial worries on a key figure on the international stage.
(14) Four goals, four assists, and constant movement have been a key part of the team’s success.
(15) Mechanosensitive ion channels may play a key role in transducing vascular smooth muscle (VSM) stretch into active force development.
(16) But Abaaoud, the man thought to be a key planner for the group behind the Paris attacks, boasted to a niece that he had brought around 90 militants back to Europe with him.
(17) Key therapeutic questions are whether beta-lactams can safely replace aminoglycosides for the treatment of gram-negative pneumonia, and whether monotherapy or aminoglycoside and beta-lactam combination antibiotic treatment is superior.
(18) Teaching procedures then establish and build these key components to fluency.
(19) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
(20) The Lords will vote on three key amendments: • To exclude child benefit from the cap calculation (this would roughly halve the number of households affected).
Unlock
Definition:
(v. t.) To unfasten, as what is locked; as, to unlock a door or a chest.
(v. t.) To open, in general; to lay open; to undo.
Example Sentences:
(1) In a Bloomberg article last week, for example, one Stanford student compared women who get raped to unlocked bicycles : ‘Do I deserve to have my bike stolen if I leave it unlocked on the quad?’ [Chris] Herries, 22, said.
(2) Our hypothesis is that phase unlocking may be one of the induction mechanisms of spike-burst activity.
(3) Customers who sign up to the Tesco Mobile Xtras programme will see an extra full-screen ad roughly every third time they unlock their phone.
(4) With Christian Eriksen peripheral on the left and Aaron Lennon well policed, the responsibility to unlock Everton came to rest on Dembélé.
(5) Low-level finite state (locked-unlocked) control is compared with open-loop stimulation of the knee extensor muscles in functional electrical stimulation (FES) induced paraplegic standing.
(6) Working across every constituency in the country, social workers are building community capacity and unlocking people’s potential.
(7) But the incident has been a public relations disaster, particularly because the management initially failed to explain how the animal was able to escape; the answer, it emerges, was two unlocked doors.
(8) Apple was asked to comment on this ability to unlock the iPhone tethering facility for free.
(9) These results are comparable with, or better than, those obtained with other forms of fixation, including immobilization with a cast, unlocked intramedullary nailing, and external fixation.
(10) To unlock this situation, the author proposes an explorative methodology for case-history making that focuses on the economic aspect of sinistrosis.
(11) Introduce 'new homes zones' But we need also to unlock land for development, empowering those who want to build high-quality homes quickly with the means to do so.
(12) Freeman's dependable, capable Watson unlocks this modern Holmes, a man who now describes himself as "a high-functioning sociopath".
(13) George Osborne, the chancellor, whose Tatton constituency lies on the expected route, is a crucial proponent in unlocking the £33bn spend.
(14) It will really have to rely on the fingerprint sensing being a compelling feature (which, in fairness, it probably will be: securing your smartphone is essential, and this is a good solution to unlocking it).
(15) This induced conformation is referred to as "locked" and the initial conformation as "unlocked".
(16) The 12% increase in comparable sales demonstrates our teams' success in unlocking the benefits of these investments, as we continue to concentrate on the things we can control in an uncertain external environment."
(17) Do you use it to unlock your phone and make iTunes Store purchases?
(18) Speaking after the meeting in Brussels, he said it was too early to make a decision on unlocking the next tranche of Greece’s €86bn (£73bn) bailout, but he hoped agreement on reforms would make a disbursal of funds possible.
(19) Wrestling with the worst crisis in the common currency's 11 years and accused of fiddling for three months while Greece went up in flames, Angela Merkel of Germany, Nicolas Sarkozy of France and other European leaders are to meet in Brussels on May 10 to unlock tens of billions of euros for Athens to put out the fire.
(20) The tide is turning, and the white paper will help unlock the floodgates of change.