Tom is trying to break the lock.

A lock is a programming language construct that allows one thread to take control of a variable and prevent other threads from reading or writing it, until that variable is unlocked.

I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.

I rose up to open to my beloved and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

In computer science, a lock is a synchronization mechanism for enforcing limits on access to a resource in an environment where there are many threads of execution.

The thread holding the lock is free to execute its critical section (the section of a program that requires exclusive access to some variable), and to unlock the data when it is finished.

Biomedical researchers lock and key and linear pathway representations are incomplete, and should be supplemented with disease maps that can now be built using molecular data.

F. filled the lock with glue and on 28 March 2000, he kicked in a part of the door when the author refused to allow him to enter the apartment.

You may have heard about the Kryptonite lock brouhaha, where a blogger talked about how you hack, or break into, a Kryptonite lock using a ballpoint pen, and it spread all over. Kryptonite had to adjust the lock, and they had to address it to avoid too many customer concerns.