quick-freeze

American

[kwik-freez] / ˈkwɪkˈfriz /

verb (used with object)

to freeze (cooked or uncooked food) rapidly, permitting it to be stored almost indefinitely at freezing temperatures.

quick-freeze British

verb

(tr) to preserve (food) by subjecting it to rapid refrigeration at temperatures of 0°C or lower

"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

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Etymology

Origin of quick-freeze

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

quick-freeze quick-froze quick-frozen quick-freezing

It has a stop-and-start rhythm of quick-freeze balletic poses and long pauses set against bursts of larger movements and loud footfalls.

From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2023

For faster freezing: Some freezers have a quick-freeze shelf that should be used.

From Washington Post ● May 13, 2020

Now it’s core staff, hair-netted and suited up, spreading fat sea scallops across a mechanized belt and running them through two brine tanks and two washes and then a quick-freeze.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2020

Instead of cooking and serving the food immediately, microwave users now quick-freeze the dishes after cooking them on conventional stoves and store them like TV dinners until the time comes to serve.

From Time Magazine Archive

When friends -raved over a dish of Franey's sweetbreads in champagne sauce, without realizing that it had been frozen, Franey and his staff of 15 Howard Johnson chefs went into the quick-freeze business in earnest.

From Time Magazine Archive

The North Pole, settling near Siberia, quick-froze the mammoths.

From Time Magazine Archive

Another option is to buy quick-frozen fillets, which are from fish caught and frozen immediately, she said.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 17, 2021

“You can buy individually quick-frozen shrimp from the grocery store, but there is a significant quality difference between fresh shrimp and frozen shrimp,” Morris said.

From Washington Times ● Oct. 10, 2020

That’s where LePage’s dream of processing plants comes into play—cooked and individually quick-frozen lobsters can be shipped worldwide with ease.

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2012

He said the compounds migrate to the poles and then get quick-frozen and collect in craters, where they stay "in the permanent shadows."

From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2010

Howard Johnson has been carefully moving into the profitable field of quick-frozen "gourmet" foods for its own dining rooms and for retail sales in supermarkets.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sudden snow, quick-freezing sleet caught Londoners so unawares that within 24 hours 30 hospitals were tending 1600 patients injured by slips and falls.

From Time Magazine Archive

For the city trade he advocates a branch plant system whereby self-service locker plants have their dressing, quick-freezing and administration handled by a central unit.

From Time Magazine Archive

They have four quick-freezing plants, so their fish brings a higher price.

From Time Magazine Archive

The author also cites such wildly remote possibilities as quick-freezing incurables until cures can be found, administering rejuvenating shots of DNA and even duplicating an entire human body from genetically coded snippets.

From Time Magazine Archive

She had heard of things like that on the quick-freezing fresh water of the lakes—small boats adrift crowded with men sitting upright in them, ice-coated, frozen, lifeless!

From The Indian Drum by Edwin Balmer

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023