Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To come to a sudden halt. 2 (context intransitive English) To become cold and formal in demeanour.
Usage examples of "freeze up".
Centigrade, nothing compared to some Siberian winter days-but the low air pressure had sucked out a blood bruise instantly, and then that had started to freeze up, which made the bruise smaller no doubt, but slower to heal as well.
Hie anti-freeze in the water had been thinned down so much in the course of the day that I was pretty certain that, in those temperatures, it wouldn't take half an hour for the radiator water to freeze up and split open the cylinder jacket.
In fall, as soon as the weather turns cold outside, the ground starts to freeze up.
Left without any treatment, it would freeze up and he would be incapable of moving it.
It's fifty below and you could freeze up like stone if it gets much colder and you stop for too long.
On the icecap, in the middle of a fierce storm, the machines must never be switched off, because the batteries would go dead and the lubricants in the engines would freeze up within two or three minutes.