Lock, Stock, and Barrel

A musket is built from three main components: the lock (its firing mechanism), the stock (the wooden body and handle), and the barrel (the tube the shot travels through). Owning all three meant owning the entire weapon. The earliest confirmed figurative use, per the Oxford English Dictionary, is a letter from Sir Walter Scott dated 29 October 1817, comparing a broken estate fountain to "the Highlandman's gun," which "wants stock, lock, and barrel" to be put back into repair, meaning it needed every part replaced. The word order shifted into today's "lock, stock, and barrel" over the following decades, but the gunsmithing origin has stayed intact and undisputed.