seize up

phrasal verb

seized up; seizing up; seizes up
: to stop working because the moving parts can no longer move
The engine/brakes suddenly seized up.
sometimes used figuratively
Her brain seized up when she tried to answer the question.

Examples of seize up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web One screaming match between Olfa and Karoui’s Rahma is so intense that the real daughters seize up as though their nervous systems just can’t go through this again. Amy Nicholson, Washington Post, 14 Mar. 2024 The lawyer showed photos of the studio to the witness and the court, causing High to seize up in tears. Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 5 Feb. 2024 She got stuck at the bottom of the dogpile as her legs seized up from cramps. Thuc Nhi Nguyen, Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 2024 Higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve caused the housing market to seize up this year, and that is now having spillover effects for hardware stores, furniture sellers and construction firms. Harriet Torry, WSJ, 19 Dec. 2023 Liquid food coloring has the potential to seize up when it’s introduced to other ingredients, but gel food coloring doesn’t have that problem. Molly Allen, Southern Living, 7 Dec. 2023 Later in the play, after Babbitt catches an adulterous second wind, Broderick turns the character’s attempt to sit on some pillows on the floor into a moment of giddy physical comedy that had the La Jolla Playhouse audience seizing up in hilarity and no doubt a little sympathetic discomfort. Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec. 2023 White chocolate is quicker to seize up than dark chocolate. New York Times, 17 Nov. 2023 While Powell assured lawmakers the Fed is committed to avoiding a repeat of 2019 — when the repo market, a key part of US financial plumbing, seized up — Wall Street economists and strategists caution that quantitative tightening remains complex and hard to predict. Liz Capo McCormick, Fortune, 10 July 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'seize up.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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Cite this Entry

“Seize up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/seize%20up. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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