If you say that people are locked in conflict or in battle, you mean they are arguing or fighting in a fierce or determined way, and neither side seems likely to stop.
locked in British English
(lɒkt)
adjective
1.
fastened with a lock
He moved along the corridor towards the locked door at the end.
I tried to open the suitcase but it was locked.
2.
engaged in an activity in a way that suggests an inability to stop
locked in battle
locked in an embrace
Examples of 'locked' in a sentence
locked
She knew when he was approaching as the outside locked door would open with a chilling click.
The Sun (2008)
Here was another locked door added to the hundred in the strange house.
Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden (1911)
Those upset cleaning ladies only saw it because they used a master key to open his locked door.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
The problem is that the hormones secreted into the system in times of stress tend to get locked away.
Mansfield, Patricia Why Am I Afraid to be Assertive? (1994)
Either something will happen for her to suddenly get on the right track or she will get locked away!
The Sun (2013)
Locked door between midfield and backline.
The Sun (2008)
It was a woman in pain in Balmoral locked away from the world.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
He would be with his disciples behind locked doors; then he would be gone.
Christianity Today (2000)
I remembered the feeling of wandering down an endless hallway lined with locked doors.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
From below they could hear the splinter of wood as Stringer and his men kicked in the doors of locked houses.
Iain Gale Man of Honour (2007)
So just why are we now going back to the wartime situation, where priceless knowledge is again kept behind locked doors?
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
The battery-powered robots work by carrying shopping bags and small parcels in a locked compartment that opens only on arrival at the recipient's home.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
After six hours the soldiers had barely cleared 100 yards down the streets of squat brick buildings, cutting open locked metal shutters in their search.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Beyond, past a storeroom on the fourth floor, the steps led through a series of wickets to a locked door leading to the battlements of the roof.
Deborah Cadbury THE LOST KING OF FRANCE: Revolution, Revenge and the Search for Louis XVII (2002)
In other languages
locked
British English: locked ADJECTIVE
If you say that people are locked in conflict or in battle, you mean they are arguing or fighting in a fierce or determined way, and neither side seems likely to stop.