1. Chiefly Sc. Fastened or secured by a lock.
1453. in Exch. Rolls Scotl., V. 556. xxxiiij grotis of xijd. grotis and jd. in a lokfast box.
1554. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 281. The saidis baillies suld tak and apprehend the said John Chalmer, and put him in custodie in stark lokfast hows.
1752. J. Louthian, Form of Process (ed. 2), 137. That ye make steiked and lockfast Gates and Doors open and patent.
1820. Scott, Monast., xxiv. Having no sure lockfast place of my own.
1888. Annie S. Swan, Doris Cheyne, xv. 232. It was not lockfast, of course, but I had no right with what it contained.
1890. Grace King, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 882/1. The cemetery was lock-fast now.
fig. 1838. Blackw. Mag., XLIII. 440. Psychology will be … lightened of a useless and unmarketable cargo which has kept her lockfast for many generations.
b. quasi-sb. A receptacle that is locked fast.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 341. A third party entered the house,… broke open several lockfasts, and stole the whole of the plate.
2. Mech. Adapted for locking something fast; fast-locking.
1881. Greener, Gun, 198. The two motions, the sliding and the drop-down, are combined in the Dougall lock-fast breech-action.
1890. Anthony’s Photogr. Bull., III. 327. So long as there is ample bearing surface and a good lock fast attachment.
