freeze.
Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
Meaning & usage
Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
The lake froze solid.
To lower something's temperature to the point that it freezes or becomes hard.
Don't freeze meat twice.
To drop to a temperature below zero degrees celsius, where water turns to ice.
It didn't freeze this winter, but last winter was very harsh.
To be affected by extreme cold.
It's freezing in here!
Don't go outside wearing just a t-shirt; you'll freeze!
Of a machine or system, to come to a sudden halt, to stop working (functioning).
Since the last update, the program freezes after a few minutes of use.
Of a person or other animal, to stop (become motionless) or be stopped due to attentiveness, fear, surprise, etc.
Despite all of the rehearsals, I froze as soon as I got on stage.
To cause someone to become motionless.
To lose or cause to lose warmth of feeling; to shut out; to ostracize.
Over time, he froze towards her, and ceased to react to her friendly advances.
To cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill.
To prevent the movement or liquidation of a person's financial assets
The court froze the criminal's bank account.
Of prices, spending etc., to keep at the same level, without any increase.
To prevent from showing any visible change.
Pressing the pause button will freeze the video playback.
Playback will freeze if you pause the video.
To trap (the puck) so that it cannot be played.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *prews-der. Proto-Germanic *-āną Proto-Germanic *freusaną Proto-West Germanic *freusan Old English frēosan Middle English fresen English freeze From Middle English fresen, from Old English frēosan (“to freeze”), from Proto-West Germanic *freusan, from Proto-Germanic *freusaną (“to freeze”), from Proto-Indo-European *prews- (“to freeze; frost”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian friis, friise, früüs (“to freeze”), Saterland Frisian fjoose, frjoze (“to freeze”), West Frisian frieze (“to freeze”), Central Franconian freese (“to freeze”), Cimbrian briizan, vriizan (“to be cold”), Dutch vriezen (“to freeze”), Low German freren, fresen (“to freeze”), Luxembourgish fréieren (“to freeze”), German frieren (“to freeze”), Yiddish פֿרירן (frirn, “freeze”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål fryse (“to freeze”), Icelandic frjósa (“to freeze”), Norwegian Nynorsk frysa, fryse (“to freeze”), Swedish frysa (“to freeze”); also Cornish rew (“frost, ice”), Irish reo (“frost”), reoigh (“to freeze”), Manx rio (“frost, ice”), Scottish Gaelic reòdh, reòth (“freeze”), Welsh rhew (“frost, ice”), Latin pruīna (“hoarfrost, rime”), Albanian prush (“embers”), Lithuanian prausti (“to give showers of rain”), Czech prskat (“to splutter, sputter”), Macedonian прска (prska, “to spray, sprinkle”), Polish pryskać, prysnąć (“to spray, sprinkle”), Russian пры́скать (prýskatʹ), пры́снуть (prýsnutʹ, “to spray, sprinkle”), Serbo-Croatian прскати, prskati (“to spray, sprinkle”), Sanskrit प्रुष्णोति (pruṣṇoti, “to moisten, shower, sprinkle, wet”), प्रुष्वा (pruṣvā, “hoarfrost, ice, rime”), Saraiki پسݨ (pussaṇ, “to become wet”).
A period of intensely cold weather.
A halt of a regular operation.
The state when either a single computer program, or the whole system ceases to respond to inputs.
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 block on pay rises or on the hiring of new employees etc.
a hiring freeze; a pay freeze
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *prews-der. Proto-Germanic *-āną Proto-Germanic *freusaną Proto-West Germanic *freusan Old English frēosan Middle English fresen English freezedeverb. English freeze Deverbal from freeze (verb), see which for further etymology.
Obsolete form of frieze.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.