seize up

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

And keep an eye on the heat—if the burner’s cranked up too high, the cheese can seize up. — Maggie Meyer Glisan, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 June 2026

Nothing works — the gun is seized up, the bolt sticking on some unforeseen burr of filament as the plastic slowly breaks in. — Jack Crosbie, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2026

The cheese will seize up not long after. — Amy Drew Thompson, The Orlando Sentinel, 5 June 2026

Down in the pit, on a raw October night in 1966, one of the giant haulers was unloading its tonnage when the pistons of its dump bed seized up. — Jonathan Franzen, New Yorker, 1 June 2026

Rhymes for seize up

• buttercup
• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup