seize up
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Englisch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]The term originates c. 1870 referring to a machine which jammed up because of excessive heat or friction. It has been used figuratively since c. 1950.
Verb
[edit]seize up (third-person singular simple present seizes up, present participle seizing up, simple past and past participle seized up)
- (figuratively) To stop functioning; to come to a halt.
- Synonyms: freeze, freeze up, grind to a halt
- Iceland's foreign currency market has seized up after the three largest banks collapsed.
- (of muscles) To stiffen or become tight and difficult to move.
- It was hard to write as my fingers had seized up with the cold weather.
- (of a machine) To stop working suddenly, and become impossible to start again.
- My car seized up this morning. So I had to catch the bus.
Translations
[edit]muscles stiffen
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machine stop working
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “seize up”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, retrieved 2023-06-29, reproduced from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, →ISBN.