1
: very cold
"Put on your jacket. It's freezing outside!"
Addy rushed home through the darkening streets as if she were pushed along by the wind. She was freezing!—
Connie Porter
Connie Porter2
: being at or below the temperature at which water freezes
a forecast for freezing temperatures overnight
freezing
adverb
The weather was freezing cold. [=very cold]
freezingly
adverb
freezingly cold temperatures
Mrs. Reed's hands still lay on her work inactive: her eye of ice continued to dwell freezingly on mine.
—Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
: the temperature at which water freezes
temperatures dipping below freezing
Synonyms
Examples of freezing in a Sentence
Adjective
why aren't you wearing a coat, as it's freezing outside?
Recent Examples on the WebJacopo Prisco, CNN, 11 July 2024
In text layered over the Instagram reel, Stuller wrote that Mittens started coming to the door every day, despite the freezing temperatures and thick snow outside.
—David Faris, Newsweek, 10 July 2024
Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 July 2024
We had just been given the go-ahead and all the prescriptions to begin hormone injections for egg retrieval and freezing and were about to head home to see my mother for Thanksgiving.
—Emma Copley Eisenberg, TIME, 24 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for freezing 
Adjective
Researchers unearthed the 52,000-year-old remains in 2018 near the village of Belaya Gora in northeastern Siberia, where freezing temperatures helped preserve the structure of the chromosomes — tiny threadlike structures that carry genetic material, or DNA — in fine detail.
—Jacopo Prisco, CNN, 11 July 2024
In text layered over the Instagram reel, Stuller wrote that Mittens started coming to the door every day, despite the freezing temperatures and thick snow outside.
—David Faris, Newsweek, 10 July 2024
Noun
For longer-term storage, preserve fresh figs by canning, freezing, or drying them.
—Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 July 2024
We had just been given the go-ahead and all the prescriptions to begin hormone injections for egg retrieval and freezing and were about to head home to see my mother for Thanksgiving.
—Emma Copley Eisenberg, TIME, 24 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for freezing
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'freezing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near freezing
Cite this Entry
“Freezing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freezing. Accessed 27 Jul. 2024.
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