forelock

Etymology 1

From Middle English *forelock, *forelok, from Old English forelocc, equivalent to fore- + lock.

noun

1. The part of a person's hairstyle which covers the forehead.
   1734, The Koran: Commonly Called the Alkoran of Mohammed, translated by George Sale, Sura 96, Congealed Blood, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7440/pg7440-images.html Doth he not know that GOD seeth? / Assuredly. Verily, if he forbear not, we will drag him by the forelock, / the lying, sinful forelock. / And let him call his council to assistance: / we also will call the infernal guards to cast him into hell.
   Warm with the blood of lads I know / Comes east the sighing air. / / It fanned their temples, filled their lungs, / Scattered their forelocks free; 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, section XXXVIII
   This little boy, still flicking his head to one side between sentences though the long blond forelock that once excused the tic had been cut […] 1978, Edmund White, chapter VIII, in Nocturnes for the King of Naples, New York: St. Martin's Press, page 135
2. The part of a horse's (or similar animal's) mane that lies on its forehead.
   […] the gates themselves slowly parted, there appeared a large horse's head, with a plaited forelock under a decorated yoke, and slowly there rolled into the road a small cart, like those driven by horse-dealers, and higglers. 1898, Ivan Turgenev, translated by Constance Garnett, A Lear of the Steppes and Other Stories, New York: Macmillan, page 146
   Even Boxer was vaguely troubled. He set his ears back, shook his forelock several times, and tried hard to marshal his thoughts; but in the end he could not think of anything to say. 1945, George Orwell, chapter 5, in Animal Farm

Etymology 2

From Middle English forelok, equivalent to fore- + lock.

noun

1. A wedge pushed through a hole at the end of a bolt to hold it in place.

verb

1. To fix in place with a forelock (wedge)
   At one extremity each pair was firmly connected by a short, massive, iron link, of about two feet in length; and, at its opposite end, a large eye-bolt was driven into each stick, where it was securely forelocked. 1835, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 14, in The Monikins