freeze

The lake froze solid.

1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, Book XX: The Famine,
Ever thicker, thicker, thicker / Froze the ice on lake and river,

He got to Dawson before the river froze, and now I suppose I won't hear any more until spring.

1913, Willa Cather, “O Pioneers!”, in Winter Memories, section I:

1915, Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, The How and Why Library: Wonders, Section II: Water,
Running water does not freeze as easily as still water.

(intransitive, copulative) Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.

Don't freeze meat twice.

1888, Elias Lönnrot, John Martin Crawford (translator, from German), The Kalevala, Rune XXX: The Frost-fiend,
Freeze the wizard in his vessel, / Freeze to ice the wicked Ahti, ...

(transitive) To lower something's temperature to the point that it freezes or becomes hard.

It didn't freeze this winter, but last winter was very harsh.

(intransitive) To drop to a temperature below zero degrees celsius, where water turns to ice.

It's freezing in here!

Don't go outside wearing just a t-shirt; you'll freeze!

(intransitive, informal) To be affected by extreme cold.

Since the last update, the program freezes after a few minutes of use.

(intransitive) (of machines and software) To come to a sudden halt, stop working (functioning).

Despite all of the rehearsals, I froze as soon as I got on stage.

As Tarzan rose upon the body of his kill to scream forth his hideous victory cry into the face of the moon the wind carried to his nostrils something which froze him to statuesque immobility and silence.

1916, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter III, in Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar:

They froze on their knees, their faces turned upward with a ghastly blue hue in the sudden glare of a weird light that burst blindingly up near the lofty roof and then burned with a throbbing glow.

1935, Robert E. Howard, chapter IV, in Jewels of Gwahlur:

(intransitive) (of people and other animals) To stop (become motionless) or be stopped due to attentiveness, fear, surprise, etc.

Dr Constantine sniggered and Mrs Hubbard immediately froze him with a glance.

1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 102:

(transitive) To cause someone to become motionless.

Over time, he froze towards her, and ceased to react to her friendly advances.

The other side to this sunny gladness of natural love is his pity for their sufferings when their own mother's heart seems to freeze towards them.

1898, Robert Burns, edited by John George Dow, Selections from the poems of Robert Burns, page lviii:

His friends begin to freeze towards him, the pillars of society cut him publicly, his clients cool off, big business deals no longer come his way, he is increasingly conscious of social ostracism and the puzzled misgivings of his wife.

1968, Ronald Victor Sampson, The Psychology of Power, page 134:

If you cheat them, they don't say anything but after that they freeze towards you.

1988, Edward Holland Spicer, Kathleen M. Sands, Rosamond B. Spicer, People of Pascua, page 37:

(figuratively) To lose or cause to lose warmth of feeling; to shut out; to ostracize.

A faint, cold fear runs through my veins, / That almost freezes up the heat of life.

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

To cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill.

The court froze the criminal's bank account.

(transitive) To prevent the movement or liquidation of a person's financial assets

The headline promise in the Liberal Democrat manifesto is to freeze rail fares for commuters and season ticket holders for the duration of a Parliament.

2019 December 4, “Lib Dems promise fares freeze and low-emission technology”, in Rail, page 6:

Of prices, spending etc., to keep at the same level, without any increase.

Some websites, such as YouTube, deliberately freeze the view count, intended to deter attempts to game the system.

(Internet) To prevent from showing any visible change.

en-verb

freeze (third-person singular simple present freezes, present participle freezing, simple past froze, past participle frozen or (now colloquial) froze)

freezes (present singular third-person)
freezing (participle present)
froze (past)
frozen (participle past)
froze (colloquial participle past)

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

→ Maltese: ffriża

dondurmaq

to lower something's temperature to freezing point

jähmettää

cause to become (more) solid by freezing or other way

donmaq

of machines and software: to come to a sudden halt

kylmetä

to lose or cause to lose warmth of feeling

palelluttaa

to cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat

замразявам

to prevent movement of someone's financial assets

From Middle English fresen, from Old English frēosan (“to freeze”), from Proto-West Germanic *freusan, from Proto-Germanic *freusaną (“to frost, freeze”), from Proto-Indo-European *prews- (“to frost, freeze”).
Cognate with Scots frese (“to freeze”), Saterland Frisian frjoze (“to freeze”), West Frisian frieze (“to freeze”), Dutch vriezen (“to freeze”), Low German freren, freern, fresen (“to freeze”), German frieren (“to freeze”), Danish fryse (“to freeze”), Norwegian fryse, Swedish frysa (“to freeze”), Latin pruīna (“hoarfrost”), Welsh (Northern) rhew (“frost, ice”), and Sanskrit प्रुष्व (pruṣvá, “water drop, frost”).


freeze

In order to work properly, the cotton stripper required that the plant be brown and brittle, as happened after a freeze, so that the cotton bolls could snap off easily.

2009, Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, 2nd edition, page 38:

Without a freeze it might be possible to proceed with the production and deployment of such destabilizing systems as the MX, Trident II, cruise missiles and SS-18s, -19s and -20s.

1982 October, William Epstein, “The freeze: a hot issue at the United Nations”, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:

1983 October 3, Ted Kennedy, speech, Truth and Tolerance in America,
Critics may oppose the nuclear freeze for what they regard as moral reasons.

Many of our opponents in Congress are advocating a freeze in Federal spending and an increase in taxes.

1985 April 27, Ronald Reagan, Presidential Radio Address:

(computing) The state when either a single computer program, or the whole system ceases to respond to inputs.

The reason I said the guard wasn't the toughest shot in curling is because, in my book, that's a shot called the freeze. A stone thrown as a freeze comes perfectly to rest directly in front of another stone, without moving it (see Figure 10-5).

2006, Bob Weeks, Curling for Dummies, page 143:

(curling) A precise draw weight shot where a delivered stone comes to a stand-still against a stationary stone, making it nearly impossible to knock out.

a hiring freeze;  a pay freeze

(business, finance) A block on pay rises or on the hiring of new employees etc.

vastlopen

(computing) state when the system ceases to respond to inputs


freeze

[I]f a plaine fellow well and cleanely apparelled, either in home-ſpun ruſſet or freeze (as the ſeaſon requires) with a five pouch at his girdle, happen to appeare in his ruſticall likenes: there is a Cozen ſaies one, At which word out flies the Taker, and thus giues the onſet vpon my olde Pennyfather.

1608, [Thomas Dekker], “Of Barnards Law”, in The Belman of London. […], London: […] [Edward Allde and Nicholas Okes] for Nathaniel Butter, →OCLC, signature F, verso: