Lock, stock and barrel
Meaning
The whole thing.
Origin
I've seen it suggested that this phrase refers to all of a shopkeeper's possessions - the stock in trade, the items stored in barrels and the lock to the door. That's entirely fanciful though - the 'whole thing' in question when this phrase originated was a musket. Muskets were composed of three parts:
- The lock, or flintlock, which is the firing mechanism. Various forms of 'lock' muskets were used from the 1400s onwards, e.g. firelocks, flintlocks, matchlocks etc. The term 'lock' was probably adopted because the mechanism resembles a door lock.
- The stock, which is the wooden butt-end of the gun. 'Stock' is the old term for wooden butt or stump and is a generic term for a solid base. It was used as early as 1495 in association with Tudor guns, in a bill for 'gonne stokkes'. See also laughing stock.
- The barrel, i.e. a cylindrical object, is an even older word and was well-established by the 15th century. This is the least obvious of these three terms to have been chosen to name a musket part. After all, in the 15th century people would have been very familiar with barrels as the squat coopered tubs used for storage - hardly similar to the parallel-sided cylindrical tubes that were used in muskets. It may have been that the term migrated from cannons or other sorts of gun which were more barrel-shaped.
Given the antiquity of the three words that make up the phrase and the fact that guns have been in use since at least the Hundred Years' War in 1450, and even earlier in other countries e.g. China, we might expect it to be very old. In fact it isn't particularly; the earliest use of it appears to come from the letters of Sir Walter Scott in 1817:
"Like the High-landman's gun, she wants stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair."
2006-12-20 10:17:04
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answer #1
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answered by mcfifi 6
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Its meaning is: The whole thing... complete.
Example: I want to buy the house and the furniture, lock stock and barrel.
The short version of the origin is that this phrase refers to the three primary components of a firearm.
"Lock" is an archaic term for what is now called the "action" or the "receiver". It was originally called the "lock" because the mechanism locked the hammer back in the cocked position. The trigger releases the lock to fire the weapon.
Stock is the portion of the firearm that the holds all the other parts together and provides a grip for the shooter. This is the part of the firearm that was traditionally made of wood.
Barrel is of course the metal tube that the bullet is fired through.
If you purchase a gun "lock, stock and barrel" you got the whole gun, complete.
2006-12-20 11:33:55
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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A bit obvious I would have thought it refers to a flint lock musket or rifle The lock is the bit that works the flint and sets of the charge, The stock is the wooden support with the should stock and the barrel is what it is the barrel . Guns come apart and can be supplied in parts if you get the lot you get The lock, the stock and the barrel. Most flintlocks you can pull the hammer back half way without actually cocking it to enable you to prime the musket so this is half **** but if it slips from the catch it goes of "Half ****"
2006-12-20 10:22:56
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answer #3
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answered by Maid Angela 7
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You can catch the above explanation at http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/lock-stock-and-barrel.html
however, the term refers to an English Civil War phrase. Cromwell's General at sea was Robert Blake, who set about rebuilding the Navy. All items carried in ships were transported in barrels, so the stores of a ship in port would be the wooden barrels, the stock within, and the lock on the door.
This is an expressions that means 'everything'; if someone buys a company lock, stock and barrel, they buy absolutely everything to do with the company. Blake & Monk sent a letter to Cromwell to have the Royalist port of Porstmouth open up the gunpowder and shot stores at Gun Warf for his fleet during the first Dutch War 1652. Cromwell asked Blake what he required from the stores, and he replied Lock, Stock, and Barrel sir.
It was a witty reply similar to that of Cromwell, who when asked by Blake how he would Take the fort of Waterford in his seige of Ireland the year earlier, he had retorted, by Hook or by Crook , refereing to Hook head, or the village of Crook.
2006-12-20 10:44:02
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answer #4
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answered by DAVID C 6
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OLd fashioned guns had a lock (flintlock which sprang down when the trigger was pulled. The flint struck a rough part and ignited the powder to fire it. The stock was where you held the gun. The barrel was where the bullet would come out of. If you took it from somebody, you would take it LOCK, STOCK, and BARREL. The phrase is now applied to many other things, like if you were burgled and all was gone, they got away with lock, stock and barrel of your goods.
2006-12-20 10:22:21
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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I always took it to mean the whole gun, ie lock, stock and barrel are all parts of a gun, so I like Mcfifi's answer too.
2006-12-20 10:20:50
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answer #6
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answered by RM 6
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2014-10-03 21:04:13
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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2016-12-11 13:06:18
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answer #8
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answered by mcdonnell 4
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2016-02-13 21:35:39
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answer #9
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answered by Elisabeth 3
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The parts of a firearm
2006-12-21 19:28:31
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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