key1

noun (plural keys)

• 1a small piece of shaped metal with incisions cut to fit the wards of a particular lock, which is inserted into a lock and turned to open or close it: there were two keys to the cupboard a room key
• a shaped metal implement for operating a switch in the form of a lock, especially one operating the ignition of a motor vehicle: Nat turned the key in the ignition
• an instrument for grasping and turning a screw, peg, or nut, especially one for winding a clock or turning a valve.
• a pin, bolt, or wedge inserted into a hole or between parts so as to lock the parts together.

• 2each of several buttons on a panel for operating a computer, typewriter, or telephone: press the ENTER key
• a lever depressed by the finger in playing an instrument such as the organ, piano, flute, or concertina: a piece composed solely for the white keys on the piano
• a lever operating a mechanical device for making or breaking an electric circuit, for example in telegraphy.

• 3a thing that provides a means of achieving or understanding something:discipline seems to be the key to her success
• an explanatory list of symbols used in a map, table, etc..
• a set of answers to exercises or problems: a key at the back of the book provides the answers
• a word or system for solving a cipher or code: it took him some time to find the key, the connection between the code and the Odyssey
• the first move in the solution of a chess problem.
• Computing a field in a record which is used to identify that record uniquely.

• 4 Music a group of notes based on a particular note and comprising a scale, regarded as forming the tonal basis of a piece of music:the key of E minor
• the tone or pitch of someone’s voice:his voice had changed to a lower key
• the prevailing tone of a piece of writing, situation, etc.:it was like the sixties all over again, in a new, more austerely intellectual key
• the prevailing range of tones in a painting:these mauves, lime greens, and saffron yellows recall the high key of El Greco’s palette

• 5the dry winged fruit of an ash, maple, or sycamore, typically growing in bunches; a samara.

• 6the part of a first coat of wall plaster that passes between the laths and so secures the rest.
• the roughness of a surface, helping the adhesion of plaster or other material.

• 7 Basketball the keyhole-shaped area marked on the court near each basket: he hit another jumper from the top of the key

adjective

• of crucial importance:she became a key figure in the suffragette movement

verb (keys, keying, keyed)

• 1enter or operate on (data) by means of a computer keyboard or telephone keypad:she keyed in a series of commands [no object]:a hacker caused disruption after keying into a vital database

• 2 [with object and adverbial] fasten (something) in position with a pin, wedge, or bolt:the coils may be keyed into the slots by fibre wedges

• 3roughen (a surface) to help the adhesion of plaster or other material: a wooden float with nails driven through it is used to key the wall surface between coats

• 4word (an advertisement in a periodical), typically by varying the form of the address given, so as to identify the publication generating particular responses: one keys advertisements and measures returns

• 5 informal vandalize (a car) by scraping its paint with a key.

• 6North American informal be the crucial factor in achieving:Ewing keyed a 73-35 advantage on the boards with twenty rebounds