Freeze-up

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The blocking of pipes due to freezing.
  2. 2
    A period of extremely cold, freezing weather.

    "The heaters, the S.R. now says, will "help tremendously" if there is severe snow and ice—a welcome change of tune from last winter, when the Region was countering criticism of its operation during the January freeze-up with a bland defence of existing precautions [...]."

  3. 3
    The start of the time when surface waters are frozen over.

Example

More examples

"Patterns of freeze-up and breakup influence the distribution and number of seals, the polar bear's main prey."

Etymology

Deverbal from freeze up.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.