lock and load

interjection

A command to prepare a weapon for battle.

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Meanings

interjection
  1. USslangA command to prepare a weapon for battle.

    1949 — John Wayne in the film Sands of Iwo Jima Lock and load, boy, lock and load.

  2. USslangPrepare for an imminent event.
verblock and load (third-person singular simple present locks and loads, present participle locking and loading, simple past and past participle locked and loaded)

present singular third person locks and loads · participle present locking and loading · participle past locked and loaded · past locked and loaded

  1. USslangTo prepare one's weapon.
  2. USslangTo prepare for an imminent event.

    It's great to know that city and town governments, all up and down the East Coast, were ready, locked and loaded, to provide bailouts, and this time it was the literal kind.

    2015, Fay Jacobs, Time Fries!: Aging Gracelessly in Rehoboth Beach, page 67

Origin

Attested since at least 1793, when a document describes flintlock weapons that are ready to fire as "well locked and loaded". The variant "load(ed) and lock(ed)" is found since at least 1815. The phrase may have originated from the use of gunlocks on naval artillery (in use by the Royal Navy since 1745); as gunlocks were not required for firing (a lintstock could be used) it may have been necessary to specify cannon was "locked" as well as loaded. As an imperative, used since at least 1940, in the U.S. Army Field Manual for the M1 Rifle. Compare e.g. German "laden und sichern" ("load and secure"). Popularized in culture after being used by John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima (1949).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

lock and load. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lock%20and%20load

MLA

“lock and load.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lock%20and%20load. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lock and load,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lock%20and%20load.

Source: lock and load on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.