[f. as prec. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. FREEZE; also, freezing in, out, etc.: see FREEZE v. 5 b, 7. At freezing = at freezing-point (see 2).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. xlvi. (1495), 889. Greys is made faste and harde by fresyng and by colde.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 29 b. It is best to sowe it about the Kalendes of October, that it may take deepe roote before the freezing and colde in Winter.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet xcvii.
| How like a Winter hath my absence beene | |
| From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting yeare? | |
| What freezings haue I felt, what darke daies seene? | |
| What old Decembers barenesse euery where? |
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 91. If you take any cleer and smooth Glass, and wetting all the inside of it with Urine, you expose it to a very sharp freezing, you will find it cover’d with a very regular and curious Figure.
1802. T. Beddoes, Hygëia, x. 34. The weather was at freezing.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxxi. 420. She has righted a little with the return of tide, and now awaits the freezing-in of her winter cradle.
1891. E. B. Howell, in Advance (Chicago), 25 June. The law permits the unjust ‘freezing out’ of the small capitalist.
2. attrib. and Comb., as freezing-chamber; also, freezing-mixture, a mixture of two or more substances, e.g., salt and snow, which, while remaining liquid, is cold enough to freeze some other liquid within its influence; freezing-point, the point on the thermometer marking the temperature at which a liquid, esp. water, freezes.
1896. Daily News, 28 May, 6/3. Delahaeff’s body lies in the *freezing chamber at the Morgue.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, iv. (1723), 236. May, by proper Vessels, set in a strong *freezing Mixture, the better to condense this Vapour, be collected in considerable Quantity.
1869. E. A. Parkes, A Manual of Practical Hygiene (ed. 3), 155. The air may also be drawn through tubes cooled by a freezing mixture; the water of the air and the organic matter condense together.
1747. Phil. Trans., XLIV. II. 613. 17 degrees above 0 or *freezing Point.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 190. The temperature of the air was 20° Fahr. below the freezing point.
