[f. LOCK sb.2 + SMITH.] An artificer whose occupation is to make or mend locks.

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1226.  in J. T. Gilbert, Hist. & Munic. Rec. Irel. (Rolls), 87. Ricardus le lokismith de Tickehille.

2

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 311/2. Loksmythe, serefaber.

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1501.  Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. (1900), II. 112. The lok smyth of Edinburgh.

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1627.  S. S., in Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., a iij b. He’s neither Lock-Smith, Gold-Smith, nor Black-Smith.

5

1707.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4347/4. Thomas Temple the Younger, late of North-Walsham…, Lock Smith.

6

1872.  Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 179. In the cathedrals of the period the locksmith’s work was especially elaborate and ingenious.

7

  Hence Locksmithery, the locksmith’s art.

8

1804–6.  Syd. Smith, Mor. Philos. (1850), 261. Some mysteries of locksmithery.

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