Word.ws English Dictionary

freeze

/ˈfɹiːz/

freeze verb: especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature. Also the obsolete form of frieze.

Verb

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

  1. (copulative, intransitive) Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
    • The lake froze solid.
    • Ever thicker, thicker, thicker / Froze the ice on lake and river,1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, Book XX: The Famine
    Synonyms:
    solidify
  2. (transitive) To lower something's temperature to the point that it freezes or becomes hard.
    • Don't freeze meat twice.
    • Freeze the wizard in his vessel, / Freeze to ice the wicked Ahti, ...1888, Elias Lönnrot, John Martin Crawford (translator, from German), The Kalevala, Rune XXX: The Frost-fiend
  3. (intransitive) 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.
  4. (informal, intransitive) To be affected by extreme cold.
    • It's freezing in here!
    • Don't go outside wearing just a t-shirt; you'll freeze!
  5. (idiomatic, intransitive) 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.
  6. (idiomatic, intransitive) 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.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    freeze up
  7. (transitive) To cause someone to become motionless.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    halt, immobilize
  8. (figuratively) 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.
    • 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
  9. To cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill.
    • 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...
  10. (transitive) To prevent the movement or liquidation of a person's financial assets
    • The court froze the criminal's bank account.
  11. Of prices, spending etc., to keep at the same level, without any increase.
    • 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
  12. (ambitransitive) To prevent from showing any visible change.
    • Pressing the pause button will freeze the video playback.
    • Playback will freeze if you pause the video.
  13. (transitive) To trap (the puck) so that it cannot be played.

Noun

freeze (plural freezes)

  1. A period of intensely cold weather.
    • 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
  2. A halt of a regular operation.
    • 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
    • Critics may oppose the nuclear freeze for what they regard as moral reasons.1983 October 3, Ted Kennedy, speech, Truth and Tolerance in America
  3. The state when either a single computer program, or the whole system ceases to respond to inputs.
    Synonyms:
    hang
  4. 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.
    • 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
  5. A block on pay rises or on the hiring of new employees etc.
    • a hiring freeze; a pay freeze
    • "We need a different understanding of revenues and public expenditure. The 15-year freeze on fuel duty and lack of tax on aviation fuel are effectively a huge subsidy to those forms of travel, but they are not described as subsidy because they are foregone revenue. Yet if you invest to hold rail...2025 May 28, Ben Plowden talks to Anthony Lambert, “The railway is an essential public service”, in RAIL, number 1036, page 33

Proper noun capitalized: Freeze

Freeze (plural Freezes)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

freeze is also the obsolete form of frieze.

freeze meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

freeze in Hindi

to become solid due to low temperature
जमना jamnā

freeze in Tamil

ஃப்ரீஸ் செய்யுங்கள்

freeze in Marathi

to become solid due to low temperature
जमणे jamṇe, गारठणे gāraṭhṇe

freeze in Urdu

منجمد کریں, فریز کریں, فریج کریں
More languagesFewer languages
freeze in Bengali
হিমায়িত করুন, হিমশীতল করুন
freeze in Telugu
ఫ్రీజ్ చేయండి, స్తంభింపజేయండి
freeze in Malayalam
ഫ്രീസ് ചെയ്യുക, മരവിപ്പിക്കുക
freeze in Kannada
ಫ್ರೀಜ್ ಮಾಡಿ, ಫ್ರೀಜ್
freeze in Punjabi
ਫ੍ਰੀਜ਼ ਕਰੋ
freeze in Gujarati
ઠીજવું ṭhījvũ
freeze in Odia
ଫ୍ରିଜ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଫ୍ରିଜ କରନ୍ତୁ
freeze in Nepali
जम्नु jamnu, जमाउनु jamāunu
freeze in Arabic
تَجَمَّدَ tajammada
freeze in Malay
beku
freeze in Indonesian
membeku, membekukan, beku
freeze in Persian
فسردن fesordan
freeze in Thai
แข็ง kɛ̌ng, แช่แข็ง chɛ̂ɛ-kɛ̌ng
freeze in Vietnamese
đóng băng, đóng đá, đông đá, phong tỏa

Examples of freeze in a sentence

  • Far unfit to bear the bitter cold, / I can scarcely move or draw my breath? / Let me, let me freeze again to death.1691, “What Power Art Thou? (The Cold Song)”, in John Dryden (lyrics), Henry Purcell (music), King Arthur:
  • 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:
  • 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:
  • The 15-year freeze on fuel duty and lack of tax on aviation fuel are effectively a huge subsidy to those forms of travel, but they are not described as subsidy because they are foregone revenue.2025 May 28, Ben Plowden talks to Anthony Lambert, “The railway is an essential public service”, in RAIL, number 1036, page 33:

All 40 example sentences with freeze

Synonyms of freeze

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of freeze

Forms of freeze

Verb
third-person singular presentfreezes
present participlefreezing
pastfroze
past participlefrozen
past (archaic)frore
past participle (colloquial)froze
past participle (archaic)frore
Noun
pluralfreezes
Proper noun
pluralFreezes

Past tense of freeze: froze

Plural of freeze: freezes

Origin of 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...

Deverbal from freeze (verb), see which for further etymology.

Words formed from freeze

Phrases with freeze

Words that rhyme with freeze

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about freeze

What does freeze mean?
Freeze means especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
What is freeze in Hindi?
Freeze in Hindi is जमना (jamnā). See Freeze meaning in Hindi.
How do you use freeze in a sentence?
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold, / I can scarcely move or draw my breath? / Let me, let me freeze again to death.
What part of speech is freeze?
Freeze can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce freeze?
Freeze is pronounced /ˈfɹiːz/.
What is the past tense of freeze?
The past tense of freeze is froze.

Words near freeze in the dictionary

  1. freewrote
  2. freezabilities
  3. freezability
  4. freezable
  5. freezables
  6. freeze
  7. freeze babies
  8. freeze baby
  9. freeze brand
  10. freeze branded
  11. freeze branding

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: freeze (page history and authors); Freeze (page history and authors); freeze (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeze (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeze (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeze (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeze (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeze (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeze (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); freeze (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-freeze.ogg.

Cite this entry: “freeze.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/freeze. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.