seize up

Idioms  

1. Come to a halt, as in The peace talks seized up and were not rescheduled. Originally, from about 1870 on, this term was applied to a machine of some kind that jammed or locked, owing to excessive heat or friction. Its figurative use dates from about 1950.

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Example Sentences

Aim for dishes that still taste perfectly fine when eaten lukewarm, that don’t seize up or congeal the moment they cool.

From Salon • Jan. 19, 2026

Warner picked Netflix’s offer in part because of uncertainty about how solid Paramount’s financing is, especially if debt markets seize up as they did in 2022, a person with knowledge of the deal said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 10, 2025

That fight came to a head in April, when fears of a sudden stop to the global economy caused the Treasury market to seize up.

From Barron's • Oct. 10, 2025

By 2007, no-one knew exactly where these grenades were hidden in bank balance sheets, so they all stopped lending to each other – which saw the whole global financial system seize up.

From BBC • May 30, 2025

If they are brought to idleness too soon after running all-out—in old cowboy parlance, being “rid hard and put away wet”—their major muscle groups can seize up in an agonizing spasm called “tying up.”

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand