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.
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
First recorded in 1955–60
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hungarian-born Krausz, whose team generated the first ultra-fast pulses in the early 2000s, has likened attosecond physics to a fast-shutter camera where the short light flashes allow a freeze frame look within the microcosm.
From Reuters ● Oct. 3, 2023
The pilot ends by returning to the cannibal scene with a reveal reminiscent of a ’90s record-scratch freeze frame — the ol’ “I bet you’re wondering how I got here.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2023
The masterstroke might be the entrance hall specification, which throws Mishima’s freeze frame into sublime high-def.
From New York Times ● Oct. 8, 2022
“I had this idea: We were going to end it with this smile, and then I’d pick a freeze frame of the most interesting, subtextual moment of the smile,” said West.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2022
Bright and well-lit, a freeze frame of any scene of this made-for-TV cookie-cutter “Groundhog Day-esque” movie could be used as a corporate stock photo.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 10, 2022
Elsewhere, she uses that same device of repetition to freeze-frame happy memories - representing a new way of thinking.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
Even if you haven’t seen an episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in years, you can probably picture it via a single freeze-frame.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2026
Despite the tragedy at the center of each case, “Murder, She Wrote” episodes regularly end with a freeze-frame close-up, Lansbury mid-laugh.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
Kwame Dawes’s “Bird in Flight” is a freeze-frame of a little girl running.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2023
With the perfect freeze-frame of me and Mom sitting in the booth together while I basked in her undivided attention.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
