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Glite Dictionary
to freeze out

to freeze out

3 6.7
To keep someone out of a group by being unfriendly or unfair
  • phrasal verb
  • /friz aʊt/
  • Informal
translation icon : excluir
  • But if all the employers in my area have union contracts that specify $50/hr, and I can't join the union, I am frozen out of the workforce.

Examples

  • For the second time in his political career, after the initial isolation during his first year in the Senate, he was "frozen out."

    Academic text (1998)

  • Robin beams at him, but Sarah tries to freeze him out with an icy stare.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • But the day is past when blacks were frozen out of political life.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Female workers find it all too easy to freeze out the female co-worker getting special attention.

    Blog text (19)

  • Micah Richards was brought back into the fold after being frozen out by Fabio Capello during his four-year stint.

    Blog text (6)

  • To meet demand for high-performance supplier chains, government should help diffuse technology to those small and medium-sized enterprises ("foundation firms") currently frozen out of capital markets.

    Academic text (1993)

  • He started out as a man of the Left—a Communist parliamentarian, in fact—who became convinced that the state-enforced equivalent of lifetime job security actually worked against the interests of ordinary young workers, who were increasingly frozen out from being offered jobs in the first place.

    Blog text (6)

  • During the meeting, he felt completely frozen out by his colleagues, who ignored his ideas.

  • She decided to leave the group since they continued to freeze her out whenever she tried to join in.

  • When he revealed his true feelings, his friends began to freeze him out, making him feel unwelcome.

Synonyms

to shut out
vsto freeze out
99 3.8

To stop something from entering, being included, or being thought about

does this specifically through social exclusion or unfair behaviour
to ostracize
vsto freeze out
  • US
31 7.7

To leave someone out of a group on purpose

focuses on blocking participation using unfriendly or unfair methods
to cast out
vsto freeze out
31 6.2

Force someone to leave a group or place because others reject them

may instead exclude by social coldness or unfair obstruction
to close out
vsto freeze out
1 6.5

Prevent a chance or option from being used

is about excluding people socially, not preventing events or actions
to outcast
vsto freeze out
1 5.7

To force someone out of a group so others avoid them

is about active exclusion that blocks participation by unfair or unfriendly acts
to freeze off
vsto freeze out
  • Informal
1 8.5

Treat someone in a cold way and ignore them to show dislike

deliberately blocks participation often using unfriendly or unfair tactics

Antonyms

to include
∞ 1.0

To make a person or thing part of something larger

to welcome
583 1.0

Greet someone in a friendly way when they arrive

How Included

to welcome
583 1.0
to allow
∞ 1.0
to freeze out
  • Informal
3 6.7
to ostracize
  • US
31 7.7

Surface Forms

freeze out infinitive
freezing out present participle
freezes out third person singular
froze out past
froze out past participle

Morphology

freeze + out

The meaning can be partially inferred from the parts: 'freeze' (to make cold/immobilize) combined with 'out' (excluded) gives a plausible image of making someone socially or emotionally cold and thus excluded. However, the social-exclusion sense is a metaphorical extension and not strictly compositional, so a B1 learner might not reliably predict the exact pragmatic meaning without prior exposure. Many languages use coldness metaphors for exclusion which helps, but the mapping is still indirect, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Freeze out comes from the image of leaving someone outside in the cold: to freeze them out is to shut them away and make them feel unwelcome. That's why it means 'to exclude someone'.