v. 1 chill, refrigerate, ice, deep-freeze, flash-freeze, frost If you freeze the leftovers, they keep better 2 solidify, congeal, harden, stiffen, ice up or over When the lake freezes, we can go skating 3 fix, immobilize, paralyse, stop (dead or dead in one's tracks), stay, pin, transfix, Gorgonize; become fixed, stand (stock-)still or motionless; peg, stick, set She froze him with an icy stare He froze to the spot in horror. Rates of exchange are no longer frozen. 4 freeze out. exclude, debar, ban, reject, ostracize; eject, drive away or out, expel, force out When he tried to join the club, he was frozen out
n. 5 frost, Brit freeze-up, US ice-up, deep-freeze There will be a freeze tonight in northern counties 6 fix, immobilization The government has put a freeze on wages