seize upverb/ˈsiːz ˌʌp/

• 1

  To stop functioning; to come to a halt.

  • Iceland's foreign currency market has seized up after the three largest banks collapsed.
  • 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.
• 2

  To stiffen or become tight and difficult to move.

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

  To stop working suddenly, and become impossible to start again.

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