subs. (colloquial).—1. The act or state of freezing; a frost.
2. (old).—Hard cider.—GROSE.
Verb. (American).—To long for intensely; e.g., ‘to FREEZE to go back,’ said of the home-sick; ‘to FREEZE for meat.’
1848. RUXTON, Life in the Far West (1887), p. 129. Threats of vengeance on every Redskin they met were loud and deep; and the wild war songs round their nightly camp-fires, and grotesque scalp-dances, borrowed from the Indians, proved to the initiated that they were, one and all, HALF-FROZE for hair.’
2. (thieves’).—Hence, to appropriate; to steal; ‘to stick to.’
3. (old).—To adulterate or BALDERDASH (q.v.) wine with FREEZE (q.v. sense 2).—GROSE.
TO FREEZE TO (or ON TO), verb. phr. (American).—To take a strong fancy to; to cling to; to keep fast hold of; and (of persons) to button-hole or shadow.
1883. Graphic, 17 March, p. 287, col. 1. If there was one institution which the Anglo-Indian FROZE to more than another, it was his sit-down supper and—its consequences.
1888. Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 2 March. The competence of a juror was judged by his ability to shake ready-formed opinions and FREEZE ON TO new ones.
TO FREEZE OUT, verb. phr. (American).—To compel to withdraw from society by cold and contemptuous treatment; from business by competition or opposition; from the market by depressing prices or rates of exchange.
