freeze up

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

1. 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.

2. (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.

3. (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.

4. (intransitive) To become cold and formal in demeanour.

• freeze-up (noun)