freeze

v. i. [ imp. Froze p. p. Frozen p. pr. & vb. n. Freezing. ] [ OE. fresen, freosen, AS. freósan; akin to D. vriezen, OHG. iosan, G. frieren, Icel. frjsa, Sw. frysa, Dan. fryse, Goth. frius cold, frost, and prob. to L. prurire to itch, E. prurient, cf. L. prna a burning coal, pruina hoarfrost, Skr. prushvā ice, prush to spirt. &unr_; 18. Cf. Frost. ] 1. To become congealed by cold; to be changed from a liquid to a solid state by the abstraction of heat; to be hardened into ice or a like solid body. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Water freezes at 32° above zero by Fahrenheit's thermometer; mercury freezes at 40° below zero. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To become chilled with cold, or as with cold; to suffer loss of animation or life by lack of heat; as, the blood freezes in the veins. [ 1913 Webster ]

To freeze up (Fig.), to become formal and cold in demeanor. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To congeal; to harden into ice; to convert from a fluid to a solid form by cold, or abstraction of heat. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cause loss of animation or life in, from lack of heat; to give the sensation of cold to; to chill. [ 1913 Webster ]

A faint, cold fear runs through my veins,
That almost freezes up the heat of life. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

--
To freeze out, to drive out or exclude by cold or by cold treatment; to force to withdraw; as, to be frozen out of one's room in winter; to freeze out a competitor. [ Colloq. ] A railroad which had a London connection must not be allowed to freeze out one that had no such connection. A. T. Hadley. It is sometimes a long time before a player who is frozen out can get into a game again. R. F. Foster. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. The act of congealing, or the state of being congealed. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. dried by freezing and applying a vacuum; -- used of tissue or blood or serum or other biological substances. This technique is gentler than other drying techniques and caused less damage or deterioration to sensitive substances. It is used primarily as a method to preserve foods or substances, and permit storage without deterioration.
Syn. -- lyophilized, lyophilised. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Freeze-dried; p. pr. & vb. n. Freeze-drying. ] to remove the moisture from (e.g. food) by first freezing and then subjecting to a high vacuum; -- used as a mild method for drying foods or chemicals while causing little decomposition, in contrast to heat-drying. This is a relatively gently drying process used to preserve food or sensitive biological materials. For biochemical materials, the term lyophilize is often used. [ PJC ]