deflock

D2E1F4L1O1C3K5
US/ˌdiˈflɑk/

verb

To dismantle, destroy, or to otherwise render inoperable a security camera; especially a license plate reader, those placed in public areas, or produced by Flock Safety, Inc.

OriginEnglish DeFlock ← Middle English flok ← Old English flocc →
Scrabble 17
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Meanings

verbdeflock (third-person singular simple present deflocks, present participle deflocking, simple past and past participle deflocked)

present singular third person deflocks · participle present deflocking · participle past deflocked · past deflocked

  1. USinformalneologismTo dismantle, destroy, or to otherwise render inoperable a security camera; especially a license plate reader, those placed in public areas, or produced by Flock Safety, Inc.

    Why is deflocking cameras a good thing?

    2026 July 14, jacobisthesmith, Instagram
    1 more example

    This is the point where we need to start taking action immediately to get these cameras out of here, so that way, the more vulnerable communities—especially right now with the Trump administration's whole stance of immigration is^([sic]) as hostile as it is—we need to be protecting our friends and our neighbors, and I think [an] easy step to do that is getting cities and towns to deflock.

    2026 July 18, Loud Light, 20:47 from the start, in How FLOCK cameras are used in Kansas...., spoken by Canyon Tyler Ashworth

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*de
  2. Proto-Indo-European*déh₁
  3. Proto-Italic*dē
  4. Latindē
  5. Latindē-
  6. Englishde-
  7. Proto-Germanic*flukkaz
  8. Proto-West Germanic*flokk
  9. Old Englishflocc
  10. Middle Englishflok
  11. Englishflock
  12. EnglishFlock
  13. EnglishDeFlock
  14. Englishdeflock

The verb originates from the DeFlock website, which is a public mapping website that keeps track of the location of security cameras that monitor public areas, usually alongside roads, which monitor and record data while surveilling. The website's name comes from de- (“to remove, to excise”) + Flock, from the company Flock Safety, which is named idiomatically after a flock as there would be so many cameras in relatively close proximity to be similar to a flock.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

flockedelfdock
Cite this entry
APA

deflock. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deflock

MLA

“deflock.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deflock. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “deflock,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deflock.

Source: deflock on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.