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• deep freeze
  deep freeze

  noun

  a state or period of halted or suspended activity or progress.
• deep-freeze
  deep-freeze

  verb (used with object)

  to quick-freeze (food).

deep freeze

¹ American  

noun

1. a state or period of halted or suspended activity or progress.

   High interest rates created a deep freeze in housing construction.

2. suspended animation.

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idioms

1. put in / into the deep freeze, to stop or suspend the activity or progress of.

   A series of quarrels put their romance into the deep freeze.

deep-freeze ² American  

[deep-freez] / ˈdipˈfriz /

verb (used with object)

deep-freezed, deep-froze, deep-freezed, deep-frozen, deep-freezing

1. to quick-freeze (food).

2. to store in a frozen state.

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Etymology

Origin of deep freeze¹

An Americanism dating back to 1940–45

Origin of deep-freeze²

An Americanism dating back to 1945–50; deep + freeze

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

deep freeze deep-freeze deep-froze deep-frozen

The combination of high home values and costlier mortgages could keep America’s housing market in a deep freeze for a fourth year in a row.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Car sales got a boost after deep freeze across much of the country ended and customers were able to get to showrooms.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 9, 2026

Don’t look now, but the housing market seems to be showing some signs of life after being in a deep freeze since 2023.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026

This was a dramatic turnaround for a relationship between two nations that had been in the deep freeze for a decade, and it will be music to President Xi Jinping 's ears.

From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026

He’d also taken the easy chair, the big television from the den and every single battery, flashlight and lightbulb in the house, as well as the contents of the deep freeze in the garage.

From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen

But since 2019, the two nations have plunged into a diplomatic deep-freeze so profound that Madrid sent no official representative to the 2024 inauguration marking Sheinbaum’s ascension as Mexico’s first woman president.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2026

The committed band of Minneapolis residents organized spontaneously, defying the deep-freeze conditions to confront the operation that has ensnared longtime city residents.

From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026

The deep-freeze will be particularly dangerous for the homeless.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 20, 2022

Devolution remained in the deep-freeze for three years.

From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2022

Within a few weeks the deep-freeze facilities of the institute were taxed to capacity, so that other specimens had to be refused.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

The researchers took weekly blood samples but did not find the culprit; so they deep-froze the samples and stored them.

From Time Magazine Archive

On land, permafrost melting and collapsing Arctic coastlines are dramatically altering ecological interactions and biogeochemistry due to the release of millennia-old carbon stores, trace elements, nutrients and potentially even deep-frozen ancient viruses and pathogenic bacteria.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2023

Until recently, the site had been deep-frozen in the subsoil known as permafrost.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2021

The Popeyes turkey I picked up last Wednesday night was a plastic-wrapped, deep-frozen behemoth that, I was informed, would take a full four days to defrost.

From Slate ● Nov. 21, 2018

Whereas the other two vaccines need to be deep-frozen, Johnson & Johnson's products will keep at temperatures between 2°C and 8°C, she said, a major advantage in remote areas.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 9, 2015

“How far is that man going to sail? If we go on like this, we’ll soon be in Burano and as stiff as deep-frozen chickens.”

From "The Thief Lord" by Cornelia Funke