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
Examples of freezing in a Sentence
Adjective
why aren't you wearing a coat, as it's freezing outside?
Recent Examples on the Web
Maria Yagoda, Vox, 9 May 2025
That is where the freezing wall of giant magnets come in, acting to both cool and restrain the unruly plasma.
—Ella Nilsen, CNN Money, 6 May 2025
Camila Domonoske, NPR, 1 May 2025
Those efforts have included the freezing of foreign aid spending and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
—Irineo Cabreros, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for freezing
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Adjective
Just 15 seconds into my first treatment with the freezing helmet latched to my head and with six more hours to go, the cold was unbearable.
—Maria Yagoda, Vox, 9 May 2025
That is where the freezing wall of giant magnets come in, acting to both cool and restrain the unruly plasma.
—Ella Nilsen, CNN Money, 6 May 2025
Noun
Instead, the government-wide effort to slash jobs and the freezing of work related to climate change seems to have combined to push employees out the door.
—Camila Domonoske, NPR, 1 May 2025
Those efforts have included the freezing of foreign aid spending and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
—Irineo Cabreros, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for freezing
Cite this Entry
“Freezing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/freezing. Accessed 18 May. 2025.
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