Key v.

[ME. keiȝe(n, keie(n, etc. f. keiȝe, KEY sb.¹ An OE. cǽʓʓian is alleged by Somner.]

  1.  trans. To lock with a key; to lock up; to fasten securely. Also fig. rare.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. VI. 103. Þe dore I-closet, I-keiȝet and I-kliketed, to kepe þe þer-oute.

c. 1425.  Disp. Mary & Cross, 241, in Leg. Rood (1871), 205. Heuene gate was keiyed [printed keiþed] clos.

1433.  Lydg., St. Edmund, I. 1072. Cloos in his herte ech uertu was I-keied [v.r. ykeyed].

1555.  Abp. Parker, Ps. cxix. 352. Keyd fast thy word: was so to me: in hope that I have done.

1780.  Newgate Cal., V. 201. Mrs. Penleaze swore that the windows were constantly barred and keyed every night.

1791.  Cowper, Odyss., XXI. 286. Be the palace-door Thy charge,… key it fast.

  2.  a. To fasten by means of a pin, wedge, bolt, or wooden cross-piece.

1577.  Harrison, England, II. xi. (1877), I. 227. An ax, keied or fastened with iron into the wood.

1654.  Whitelocke, Jrnl. Swed. Emb. (1772), I. 196. The bodyes of great trees squared, and … keyed togither by other great pieces of timber.

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 302. To key home the plates of the cupola to the ribs.

1839.  R. S. Robinson, Naut. Steam Eng., 57. It is keyed or wedged in, and rusted in so as to be immoveable.

1881.  Young, Every Man his own Mechanic, § 550. Immovably keyed upon the cranked shaft is a heavy wooden cone pulley.

  b.  To cause (plaster) to adhere (to laths).

1881.  Young, Every Man his own Mechanic, § 1383. When the mortar is put over the laths, part of it penetrates between them, and when hard keys, as it were, the plaster to the laths and renders it difficult of removal.

  3.  To regulate the pitch of the strings of a musical instrument. Hence fig.: To give a certain tone or intensity (to feelings, thoughts); to key up, to stimulate, to raise to a high pitch.

1636.  Heywood, Challenge Beautie, Prol. And Poets strive to key their strings more loud.

1655.  H. Vaughan, Silex Scint., I. Affliction, 36. Thus doth God key disorder’d man … Tuning his brest to rise or fall.

1866.  Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, IV. 257. The fervid quickness and strength of Rousseau’s feelings keyed him on so high a pitch that [etc.].

1888.  Hurlbert, Irel. under Coerc., I. I. 46. If Mr. Balfour keys up the landlords to stand out.

  b.  To fix the strings of a musical instrument upon the pegs or keys.

1872.  W. Skeen, Early Typogr., 90. They were as useless to him as unstrung harp-strings are unmusical until they are keyed and stretched and tuned.

  4.  To insert the keystone in (an arch). Also with in.

1735.  J. Price, Stone-Bridge Thames, 8. After the Arches are thus turn’d and key’d.

1751.  Labelye, Westm. Br., 75. The last Arch was key’d in.

1770.  Chron., in Ann. Reg., 97/2. The new bridge … fell down after it was key’d in.

  Key, var. KAY a., left (hand or foot).