Meaning of lock-in | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A sleepover party, usually held in a public place such as a church or school, in which the participants are not allowed to leave until the next morning.
   US
2. An illegal but widely-tolerated invitation-only gathering in a British pub, after the end of licensing hours, to allow regular customers the opportunity to enjoy further drinking time.
   Ireland, UK
3. A situation in which members of an industry have agreed to adopt a certain standard and have retooled their production to meet this standard, thus making it very costly to change to a different standard.
4. The situation where an investor cannot trade without incurring an undesirable penalty such as taxation.

Equivalents

Examples

“The youth group will have their annual lock-in this weekend.”

“He was a lunatic drunk and started sing songs that lasted into the early hours of the morning and resulted in many weekend lock-ins in the village pub.”

“vendor lock-in”

CEFR level