freeze frame

or freeze-frame

noun Television, Movies.

an optical effect or technique in which a single frame of film is reprinted in a continuous series, which when shown gives the effect of a still photograph.

a button or other mechanism on a projector, videocassette system, etc., allowing one to stop the projected picture at any point.

Origin of freeze frame

First recorded in 1955–60

Related formsfreeze-frame, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for freeze-frame

Contemporary Examples of freeze-frame

Every still life is secretly cinematic, some version of the freeze-frame.
Stillness Comes To Life
Blake Gopnik
August 27, 2012

British Dictionary definitions for freeze-frame

freeze-frame

noun

films television a single frame of a film repeated to give an effect like a still photograph

a single frame of a video recording viewed as a still by stopping the tape

verb

(tr) to make a freeze-frame of (an image)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012