deep freeze

¹

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.

deep-freeze

²

[ deep-freez ]

verb (used with object)

, deep-freezed or deep-froze, deep-freezed or deep-fro·zen, deep-freez·ing.

1. to quick-freeze (food).
2. to store in a frozen frozen state.

Word History and Origins

Origin of deep freeze¹

An Americanism dating back to 1940–45

Origin of deep freeze²

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

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

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

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

Example Sentences

In 1992, an object about a tenth the diameter of Pluto was found orbiting the sun “in the deep freeze of space well beyond the orbits of Pluto and Neptune,” as Science News described it.

From Science News

That would have cast a long shadow, one that imposed a deep freeze on Jupiter’s birthplace.

From Science News For Students

For this reason, in 2019 two different research teams independently made the radical suggestion that Jupiter had originated in the deep freeze beyond the current orbits of Neptune and Pluto, then spiraled inward toward the sun.

From Science News

Those six went into the deep freeze, while Claudy had surgery and chemotherapy.

From Science News

They’re moving northward, bleeding dry whole generations of moose calves in the process, but a midwinter deep freeze won’t make much of a difference, since they’re already buried deep in their host’s fur.

From Popular-Science

But with the outbreak of hostilities in mid-2011, all festivities were thrust into the deep freeze.

From The Daily Beast

It would seem Bennett has decided to defrost a security perspective that went into deep-freeze in the 1970s.

From The Daily Beast

At some point, the fro-yo business could run into a deep freeze.

From The Daily Beast

Its plunge into bankruptcy caused the entire global financial system to go into a deep freeze.

From The Daily Beast

It looks like Iran is headed for the diplomatic deep freeze yet again.

From The Daily Beast

And Mrs. Paine, is that deep freeze the type of deep freeze that you uncover from the top, that is, the lid opens?

From Project Gutenberg

He said, "The dust will shut out what dim sunlight there is and the whole planet will be in for a deep freeze."

From Project Gutenberg

She put her parcel on a deep-freeze unit and pulled off its paper covering.

From Project Gutenberg

He continued his work at the ravine and expressed joy that a heavy snow would prevent a deep freeze of the gravel.

From Project Gutenberg

The job number called for a deep-freeze showcase, and there were exactly two hundred and seven detail drawings involved.

From Project Gutenberg