Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - freeze

~1 v past tense froze past participle frozen 1 »LIQUID« 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), thaw1 (1)) 2 »EARTH« 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 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« 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 cold1) 6 »FEEL COLD« 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« 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« to legally prevent money in a bank from being spent, property from being sold etc  (The court froze their assets.) 9 »STOP MOVING« 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 phr v 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 phr v 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 n 1 a fixing of wages, prices etc at a particular level  (pay freezes) 2 a stopping of some activity + on  (a freeze on production) 3 BrE 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)