As Tarzan rose upon the body of his kill to scream forth his hideous victory cry into the face of the moon the wind carried to his nostrils something which froze him to statuesque immobility and silence.
They froze on their knees, their faces turned upward with a ghastly blue hue in the sudden glare of a weird light that burst blindingly up near the lofty roof and then burned with a throbbing glow.
(transitive) To cause someone to become motionless.
1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 102:
Dr Constantine sniggered and Mrs Hubbard immediately froze him with a glance.
(figuratively) To lose or cause to lose warmth of feeling; to shut out; to ostracize.
Over time, he froze towards her, and ceased to react to her friendly advances.
1898, Robert Burns, John George Dow (editor), Selections from the poems of Robert Burns, page lviii,
The other side to this sunny gladness of natural love is his pity for their sufferings when their own mother's heart seems to freeze towards them.
1968, Ronald Victor Sampson, The Psychology of Power, page 134:
His friends begin to freeze towards him, the pillars of society cut him publicly, his clients cool off, big business deals no longer come his way, he is increasingly conscious of social ostracism and the puzzled misgivings of his wife.
1988, Edward Holland Spicer, Kathleen M. Sands, Rosamond B. Spicer, People of Pascua, page 37,
If you cheat them, they don't say anything but after that they freeze towards you.
To cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill.
Of prices, spending etc., to keep at the same level, without any increase.
2019 December 4, “Lib Dems promise fares freeze and low-emission technology”, in Rail, page 6:
The headline promise in the Liberal Democrat manifesto is to freeze rail fares for commuters and season ticket holders for the duration of a Parliament.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
2009, Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy, 2nd Edition, page 38,
In order to work properly, the cotton stripper required that the plant be brown and brittle, as happened after a freeze, so that the cotton bolls could snap off easily.
1982 October, William Epstein, The freeze: a hot issue at the United Nations, in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
Without a freeze it might be possible to proceed with the production and deployment of such destabilizing systems as the MX, Trident II, cruise missiles and SS-18s, -19s and -20s.
Many of our opponents in Congress are advocating a freeze in Federal spending and an increase in taxes.
(computing) The state when either a single computer program, or the whole system ceases to respond to inputs.
(curling) A precise draw weight shot where a delivered stone comes to a stand-still against a stationary stone, making it nearly impossible to knock out.
2006, Bob Weeks, Curling for Dummies, page 143:
The reason I said the guard wasn't the toughest shot in curling is because, in my book, that's a shot called the freeze. A stone thrown as a freeze comes perfectly to rest directly in front of another stone, without moving it (see Figure 10-5).