freeze

English Online Dictionary. What means freeze‎? What does freeze mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹiːz/
• Rhymes: -iːz
• Homophones: frees, frieze

Etymology 1

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”).

Verb

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

1. (intransitive, copulative) Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature.
   • 1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, Book XX: The Famine,

     Ever thicker, thicker, thicker / Froze the ice on lake and river,

   • 1915, Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, The How and Why Library: Wonders, Section II: Water,

     Running water does not freeze as easily as still water.

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

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

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

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

   Synonym: freeze up

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

   Synonym: freeze up
7. (transitive) To cause someone to become motionless.
8. (figuratively) To lose or cause to lose warmth of feeling; to shut out; to ostracize.
9. To cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill.
10. (transitive) To prevent the movement or liquidation of a person's financial assets

11. Of prices, spending etc., to keep at the same level, without any increase.
12. (Internet) To prevent from showing any visible change.

Synonyms

• (become solid): solidify
• (stop functioning): freeze up, grind to a halt, hang, lock up, seize, seize up
• (cause someone to become motionless): halt, immobilize; See also Thesaurus:immobilize

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “become solid”): defrost, liquify, unfreeze

Hyponyms

• (become solid): deep-freeze

Derived terms

Related terms

• frost

Descendants

• → Maltese: ffriża

Translations

Etymology 2

See the above verb.

Noun

freeze (plural freezes)

1. A period of intensely cold weather.
2. A halt of a regular operation.
   • 1983 October 3, Ted Kennedy, speech, Truth and Tolerance in America,

     Critics may oppose the nuclear freeze for what they regard as moral reasons.
3. (computing) The state when either a single computer program, or the whole system ceases to respond to inputs.

   Synonym: hang

4. (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.
5. (business, finance) A block on pay rises or on the hiring of new employees etc.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Noun

freeze (plural freezes)

1. Obsolete form of frieze.