The definition
A figure or sentence that may be published only in its verified form, byte-identical to its checked source; any edit sends it back for re-verification.
What the descriptor records
The lock is a handling record. A claim-locked figure or sentence was checked against its source, and it may be carried from page to page only in that verified form, byte for byte.
The descriptor is enforced in the publishing machinery: a checker compares locked material against its source, and cleared sentences live in a copy-block library that is reused verbatim or not at all. Any edit — a figure changed, a word moved — breaks the lock and sends the material back for re-verification before it can publish again.
Where a reader meets it
The corpus's pages carry locked material in their source furniture: the dataset citation, the as-of dates, and the fixed sentences that repeat across surfaces. When the same sentence appears on the dataset, on the corpus pages, and in this glossary word for word, the lock is the reason.
What it is not
Claim-locked is not an accuracy predicate. It does not say a figure is right, and a locked figure is never presented as right because it is locked. The lock records provenance — where the figure came from, and that it arrived unchanged. Provenance is a statement about handling, not about truth.
A figure can be locked and still be superseded when its source is re-issued. The lock then attaches to the new verified form, after re-verification, and the old form stops publishing.