seize up

present singular third person seizes up · participle present seizing up · participle past seized up · past seized up

1. figurativelyintransitiveTo stop functioning; to come to a halt.

   Iceland's foreign currency market has seized up after the three largest banks collapsed.

   3 more examples

   In the 2004 film A Day Without a Mexican, Sergio Arau imagines, in mockumentary style, what would happen to California if its entire Mexican-immigrant population vanished. With so many housekeepers and farmworkers, teachers and gardeners, line cooks and police gone, the state seizes up.

   2021 October 5, Ian Bogost, “A Day Without Facebook”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 05 Oct 2021

   I love casual fun – but seize up sexually in a serious relationship [title]

   2023 December 5, Pamela Stephenson Connolly, “I love casual fun – but seize up sexually in a serious relationship”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2023

   All of this has spooked the world’s investors. The bond market seized up after Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, as some analysts wondered whether the Fed would have to step in to provide liquidity.

   2025 April 25, Annie Lowrey, “What Would Be Worse Than a Recession?”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 28 Apr 2025

   Synonyms: freeze, freeze up, grind to a halt

2. intransitiveTo stiffen or become tight and difficult to move.

   It was hard to write as my fingers had seized up with the cold weather.

   1 more example

   I have had over six years to think about my future and it does not look good. I … can expect no cure or improvement in my condition as my muscles and joints seize up through lack of use.

   2012 June 19, Amelia Hill, quoting Tony Nicklinson, “Man with locked-in syndrome calls for change to murder law”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2019

3. intransitiveTo stop working suddenly, and become impossible to start again.

   My car seized up this morning. So I had to catch the bus.