place in a place where something cannot be removed or someone cannot escape; "The parents locked her daughter up for the weekend"; "She locked her jewels in the safe"
close with or as if with a tight seal; "This vacuum pack locks in the flavor!"
in or to or toward the rear; "he followed behind"; "seen from behind, the house is more imposing than it is from the front"; "the final runners were far behind"
remaining in a place or condition that has been left or departed from; "when he died he left much unfinished work behind"; "left a large family behind"; "the children left their books behind"; "he took off with a squeal of tires and left the other cars far behind"
in debt; "he fell behind with his mortgage payments"; "a month behind in the rent"; "a company that has been run behindhand for years"; "in arrears with their utility bills"
in or into an inferior position; "fell behind in his studies"; "their business was lagging behind in the competition for customers"
of timepieces; "the clock is almost an hour slow"; "my watch is running behind"
preserve with sugar; "Mom always conserved the strawberries we grew in the backyard"
use cautiously and frugally; "I try to economize my spare time"; "conserve your energy for the ascent to the summit"
keep in safety and protect from harm, decay, loss, or destruction; "We preserve these archeological findings"; "The old lady could not keep up the building"; "children must be taught to conserve our national heritage"; "The museum curator conserved the ancient manuscripts"
keep constant through physical or chemical reactions or evolutionary change; "Energy is conserved in this process"
occur between other event or between certain points of time; "the war intervened between the birth of her two children"
get involved, so as to alter or hinder an action, or through force or threat of force; "Why did the U.S. not intervene earlier in WW II?"
be placed or located between other things or extend between spaces and events; "This interludes intervenes between the two movements"; "Eight days intervened"