freeze

1 verb past tense froze past participle frozen

1 LIQUID (I, T) if a liquid freezes, or something freezes it, it becomes hard and solid because the temperature is very cold: The water at the edge of the lake froze last night. | freeze sth: The cold weather can even freeze petrol in car engines.

—compare melt (1), thaw 1 (1)

2 EARTH (I, T) if something such as earth that contains liquid freezes, or something freezes it, it becomes hard because of cold temperatures: The ground was frozen under the thin snow.

3 MACHINE/ENGINE also freeze up (I, T) if a machine, engine, pipe etc freezes, or something freezes it, the liquid inside it becomes solid with cold, so that it does not work properly: The water pipes have frozen up.

4 FOOD (I, T) to make food extremely cold so that you can preserve it for a long time, or to be able to be preserved in this way: I'm going to freeze some of these beans. | Tomatoes don't freeze well.

5 it's freezing spoken used to say that the temperature is extremely cold: It's freezing in here - can't we shut a few windows?

—see cold 1

6 FEEL COLD (I) spoken if someone freezes, they feel very cold: You'll freeze if you don't put a coat on. | freeze to death spoken (=feel extremely cold): Come inside, you must be freezing to death.

7 WAGES/PRICES (T) if a government or company freezes wages, prices etc, they do not increase them, and keep them at a particular level: Student grants were frozen at 1989 levels.

8 MONEY/PROPERTY (T) to legally prevent money in a bank from being spent, property from being sold etc: The court froze their assets.

9 STOP MOVING (I) to stop moving suddenly and stay completely still and quiet: I froze and listened; someone was in my apartment. | “Freeze! Drop your weapons!” shouted Officer Greer.

10 freeze to death to become so cold that you die

freeze sb out phrasal verb (T) to deliberately prevent someone from being involved in something, by making it difficult for them, being unkind to them etc: You've got to stop freezing me out of the decision-making. freeze over phrasal verb (I) if an area or pool of water freezes over, its surface turns into ice: We'll go skating if the lake has frozen over. 2 noun

1 (C) a fixing of wages, prices etc at a particular level: pay freezes

2 (C) a stopping of some activity

(+ on): a freeze on production

3 BrE (singular) a period of extremely cold weather

4 AmE a short period of time, especially at night, when the temperature is extremely low

—see also: deep freeze