freeze
/ˈfɹiːz/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.11 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To drop to a temperature below zero degrees celsius, where water turns to ice.
Intransitive verb
verb
Of a machine or system, to come to a sudden halt, to stop working (functioning).
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The lake froze solid."
- "1855, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, Book XX: The Famine, Ever thicker, thicker, thicker / Froze the ice on lake and river,"
- "He got to Dawson before the river froze, and now I suppose I won't hear any more until spring."
- "1915, Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, The How and Why Library: Wonders, Section II: Water, Running water does not freeze as easily as still water."
- "Don't freeze meat twice."
- "1888, Elias Lönnrot, John Martin Crawford (translator, from German), The Kalevala, Rune XXX: The Frost-fiend, Freeze the wizard in his vessel, / Freeze to ice the wicked Ahti, ..."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *prews-der. Proto-Germanic *-āną Proto-Germanic *freusaną Proto-West Germanic *freusan Old English frēosan Middle English fresen English freeze From Middle English fresen, from Old English frēosan (“to freeze”), from Proto-West Germanic *freusan, from Proto-Germanic *freusaną (“to freeze”), from Proto-Indo-European *prews- (“to freeze; frost”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian friis, friise, früüs (“to freeze”), Saterland Frisian fjoose, frjoze (“to freeze”), West Frisian frieze (“to freeze”), Central Franconian freese (“to freeze”), Cimbrian briizan, vriizan (“to be cold”), Dutch vriezen (“to freeze”), Low German freren, fresen (“to freeze”), Luxembourgish fréieren (“to freeze”), German frieren (“to freeze”), Yiddish פֿרירן (frirn, “freeze”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål fryse (“to freeze”), Icelandic frjósa (“to freeze”), Norwegian Nynorsk frysa, fryse (“to freeze”), Swedish frysa (“to freeze”); also Cornish rew (“frost, ice”), Irish reo (“frost”), reoigh (“to freeze”), Manx rio (“frost, ice”), Scottish Gaelic reòdh, reòth (“freeze”), Welsh rhew (“frost, ice”), Latin pruīna (“hoarfrost, rime”), Albanian prush (“embers”), Lithuanian prausti (“to give showers of rain”), Czech prskat (“to splutter, sputter”), Macedonian прска (prska, “to spray, sprinkle”), Polish pryskać, prysnąć (“to spray, sprinkle”), Russian пры́скать (prýskatʹ), пры́снуть (prýsnutʹ, “to spray, sprinkle”), Serbo-Croatian прскати, prskati (“to spray, sprinkle”), Sanskrit प्रुष्णोति (pruṣṇoti, “to moisten, shower, sprinkle, wet”), प्रुष्वा (pruṣvā, “hoarfrost, ice, rime”), Saraiki پسݨ (pussaṇ, “to become wet”).