Definition of "air-lock" [air-lock]

• An air-tight chamber in a caisson in which operations are carried on under water, communicating by one door with the outer air and the main entrance-shaft of the caisson, and by another door with the chambers filled with condensed air in which the men are at work. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "The door was sucked shut, the system hummed, clicked, whirred very oddly ... in a way the Criten had never heard an air-lock whirr ... and then the outer door popped loose."
• "The Criten leaped for the ideational air-lock and activated the mechanism."
• "I'll start peeping Spaceland for Reich and Hassop at once, "Powell said as the launch drifted down for the passage through the air-lock," but I want to check a hunch first."