English

Proper noun

Sherlock

1. An English surname​.
2. A rare male given name transferred from the surname.
3. (humorous) A detective (from Sherlock Holmes), especially used ironically to address somebody who has stated the obvious.

Derived terms

See also

• Sherlock Holmes on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

Sherlock ‎(third-person singular simple present Sherlocks, present participle Sherlocking, simple past and past participle Sherlocked)

1. (informal) To deduce; to figure out; to solve.
   • 1921, Eleanor Hallowell Abbott, Rainy Week, E. P Dutton (1921), page 77:

     "Anybody could have Sherlocked at a glance," sniffed young Kennilworth, "that it had been packed by a crazy person!"

   • 1921, C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson, The Brightener, Doubleday (1921), page 274:

     But almost at once I told myself that I ought to have Sherlocked the truth the moment this troubled, beautiful being had appeared on deck.

   • 1997, Bharati Mukherjee, Leave It to Me, Fawcett Columbine (1997), ISBN 9780307792297, unnumbered page:

     He wasn't crew, and he wasn't talent. I Sherlocked that from his clothes: […]

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:Sherlock.
2. (informal) To search; to hunt; to seek.
   • 1908, The Blue and Gold, Volume 35, page 52:

     That afternoon when the boys were in the field Mr. Frickstad sherlocked around in the tents and under the cots looking for a missing rocking-chair.

   • 1917, The National Provisioner, Volume 56, Part 1, page 33:

     It is reported that Governor McCall will also appoint a committee to investigate the high cost of living, but in the meantime individual investigators have Sherlocked around and their stories would make DeQuincy's Life of an Opium Eater fade into insignificance.

   • 1919, Theatre Magazine, Volumes 29-30, page 24:

     Mlle. Belge's eyes Sherlocked over her chorus until it matched up those curls.

3. (computing) To obsolete a unique feature in third-party software by introducing a similar or identical feature to the OS or a first-party program/app.
   • 2012, "You've been sherlocked", The Economist, 13 July 2012:

     The thing software developers fear most is being "sherlocked".

   • 2013, Alex Hern, "Sherlocked: how Mavericks is making some apps obsolete", The Guardian, 28 October 2013:

     All three developers are in a position common enough that it even has a name in the community. They have been "sherlocked".

   • 2014, Javed Anwer, "WhatsApp CEO mocks Apple for copying features", The Times of India, 3 June 2014:

     Last year, when Apple released iOS 7 it added a feature to the Photo app, allowing users to sort photos on the basis of location and date. Photoworks, a third-party app, too offered same functionality. In response, app developer Stephen Orth tweeted, "I guess my new app just got sherlocked."

References

• Percy Hide Reaney, The Origin of English Surnames, Percy Hide Reaney, Routledge, 1967, p. 235

English

Verb

sherlock ‎(third-person singular simple present sherlocks, present participle sherlocking, simple past and past participle sherlocked)

1. Alternative letter-case form of Sherlock