noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   dreadlocks colloquial, plural, plural-only
2. 2
   A Rastafarian person.

Verb

1. 1
   third-person singular simple present indicative of dread form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person

Synonyms

All synonyms

dreadlocksdreadlockslockslocks

Example

More examples

"The child dreads his visit to the dentist."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Abbreviation of dreadlocks. Sense of “Rastafarian person” by synecdoche.

Etymology 2

From dread + -s.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.