seize up

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.

seize up (third-person singular simple present seizes up, present participle seizing up, simple past and past participle seized up) (intransitive)

1. (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.

   • 2021 October 5, Ian Bogost, “A Day Without Facebook”, in The Atlantic‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 October 2021:

     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.

   • 2023 December 5, Pamela Stephenson Connolly, “I love casual fun – but seize up sexually in a serious relationship”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 December 2023:

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

   • 2025 April 25, Annie Lowrey, “What Would Be Worse Than a Recession?”, in The Atlantic‎^[3], archived from the original on 28 April 2025:

     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.

2. (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.

   • 2012 June 19, Amelia Hill, quoting Tony Nicklinson, “Man with locked-in syndrome calls for change to murder law”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 September 2019:

     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.

3. (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.

• seize-up

• seize upon

• “seize up”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, retrieved 29 June 2023, reproduced from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, →ISBN.