Word.ws English Dictionary

seize-up

seize-up noun: stillstand, slowdown.

Noun

seize-up (plural seize-ups)

  1. Stillstand, slowdown.
    • Growth in the UK service sector slowed last month amid a “seize-up” in activity as companies put projects on hold in the run-up to the general election.2024 July 3, Richard Partington, “UK service sector growth ‘seizes up’ as firms put plans on hold before election”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Forms of seize-up

pluralseize-ups

Origin of seize-up

Deverbal from seize up.

Questions about seize-up

What does seize-up mean?
Seize-up means stillstand, slowdown.
What part of speech is seize-up?
Seize-up is a noun.
What is the plural of seize-up?
The plural of seize-up is seize-ups.

Words near seize-up in the dictionary

  1. seize the day
  2. seize the initiative
  3. seize the opportunity
  4. seize up
  5. seize upon
  6. seize-up
  7. seized
  8. seized on
  9. seized out
  10. seized the day
  11. seized the initiative

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: seize-up (page history and authors). 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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