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1. The withdrawal of heat to change something from a liquid to a solid
   - freeze

1. Change to ice
   "The water in the bowl froze"
    
2. Stop moving or become immobilized
   "When he saw the police car he froze"
   - stop dead
    
3. Be cold
   "I could freeze to death in this office when the air conditioning is turned on"
    
4. Cause to freeze
   "Freeze the leftover food"
    
5. Stop a process or a habit by imposing a freeze on it
   - suspend
    
6. Be very cold, below the freezing point
   "It is freezing in Kalamazoo"
    
7. Change from a liquid to a solid when cold
   "Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit"
   - freeze out, freeze down
    
8. Prohibit the conversion or use of (assets)
   "Freeze the assets of this hostile government"
   - block, immobilize, immobilise [Brit]
    
9. Anesthetize by cold
    
10. Suddenly behave coldly and formally
    "She froze when she saw her ex-husband"

Derived forms: freezings

See also: freezer

Type of: act, alter, anaesthetise [Brit], anaesthetize [Brit, Cdn], anesthetise [Brit], anesthetize [N. Amer], behave, break, change, change state, chilling, cooling, do, interrupt, keep back, modify, phase change, phase transition, physical change, put out, put under, solidify, stand still, state change, suffer, temperature reduction, turn, withhold

Antonym: boil, unfreeze

Encyclopedia: Freeze Freeze, The