INTERLOCKING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does interlocking mean? 

• INTERLOCKING (noun)
  The noun INTERLOCKING has 2 senses:

1. contact by fitting together

2. the act of interlocking or meshing

  Familiarity information: INTERLOCKING used as a noun is rare.

• INTERLOCKING (adjective)
  The adjective INTERLOCKING has 1 sense:

1. linked or locked closely together as by dovetailing

  Familiarity information: INTERLOCKING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INTERLOCKING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Contact by fitting together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

engagement; interlocking; mesh; meshing

Context example:

the meshing of gears

Hypernyms ("interlocking" is a kind of...):

contact; impinging; striking (the physical coming together of two or more things)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of interlocking or meshing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

interlock; interlocking; mesh; meshing

Context example:

an interlocking of arms by the police held the crowd in check

Hypernyms ("interlocking" is a kind of...):

catch; grab; snap; snatch (the act of catching an object with the hands)

Derivation:

interlock (become engaged or intermeshed with one another)

• INTERLOCKING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Linked or locked closely together as by dovetailing

Synonyms:

interlacing; interlinking; interlocking; interwoven

Similar:

complex (complicated in structure; consisting of interconnected parts)

 Context examples 

The sea is Earth's most formidable carbon dioxide storage machine, but mysteries abound about the interlocking processes and the myriad organisms involved.

(Research provides new view of the critical role of plankton in marine carbon storage, National Science Foundation)

The night before they had lain with their wheels interlocking and their shafts under each other’s bodies, as thick as they could fit, from the old church to the Crawley Elm, spanning the road five-deep for a good half-mile in length.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)