freeze up

See also: freeze-up

English[edit]

freeze up (third-person singular simple present freezes up, present participle freezing up, simple past froze up, past participle frozen up)

To be adversely affected by ice, and not function.
- 1962 March, “Lessons of the Freeze-up”, in Modern Railways, page 146:
  But these precautions lost some of their merit when the L.T. trains themselves became frozen up at depots overnight.
(transitive, intransitive) (of machines and software) To come or bring to a sudden halt, stop working (functioning).
Since the last update, the program freezes up after a few minutes of use.
(transitive, intransitive) (of people and other animals) To stop or be stopped due to attentiveness, fear, surprise, etc.
Despite all of the rehearsals, as soon as I got on stage I froze up.
(intransitive) To become cold and formal in demeanour.

computing