FREEZE, verb intransitive preterit tense froze; participle passive frozen, or froze. [Gr. had for its radical letters.]

1. To be congealed by cold; to be changed from a liquid to a solid state by the abstraction of heat; to be hardened into ice or a like solid body. Water freezes at the temperature of 32 degrees above zero by Fahrenheit's thermometer. Mercury freezes at 40 degrees below zero.

2. To be of that degree of cold at which water congeals.

3. To chill; to stagnate, or to retire from the extreme vessels; as, the blood freezes in the veins.

4. To be chilled; to shiver with cold.

5. To die by means of cold. We say a man freezes to death.

FREEZE, verb transitive

1. To congeal; to harden into ice; to change from a fluid to a solid form by cold or abstraction of heat. This weather will freeze the rivers and lakes.

2. To kill by cold; but we often add the words to death. this air will freeze you, or freeze you to death.

3. To chill; to give the sensation of cold and shivering. This horrid tale freezes my blood.

FREEZE, in architecture. [See Frieze.]