Meaning & use
freeze off
Last updated
Meanings
phrasephrasal verb
To get rid of a small skin growth, such as a wart, by chilling it with a very cold substance until the tissue dies.
Grammar: Takes an object, which can sit before or after off: freeze off a wart, freeze a wart off.
Patterns
- freeze something off
- freeze off something
The doctor offered to freeze off the wart on my thumb during a five-minute visit.
She tried to freeze off the skin tag at home, but a clinic did a much safer job.
He had two warts frozen off before the summer swimming season.
phrasephrasal verbrare
To stop someone from taking part or getting close by treating them with coldness and hostility.
Grammar: Takes a person as object: freeze someone off. Usually written freeze out in this sense, so treat it as less common.
Patterns
- freeze someone off
The older members tried to freeze off the newcomer by never answering her emails.
He felt frozen off by a group that stopped inviting him to lunch.
Word forms
| third person singular | freezes off |
|---|---|
| past tense | froze off |
| past participle | frozen off |
| -ing form | freezing off |
Common combinations
- freeze off a wart
- The nurse will freeze off the wart in one short appointment.
- freeze off a verruca
- They froze off her verruca with liquid nitrogen.
- have something frozen off
- I had a mole-like growth frozen off last spring.
- freeze off a skin tag
- Dermatologists often freeze off a skin tag when it keeps rubbing on clothing.
- freeze off with liquid nitrogen
- The growth was frozen off with liquid nitrogen and fell away within two weeks.
Synonyms and how they differ
- remove
- Remove is a general word that says nothing about method, while freeze off names the exact technique of using cold.
- cryotherapy
- Cryotherapy is the formal medical term for the treatment, whereas freeze off is the everyday phrase patients use for it.
- burn off
- Burn off describes destroying tissue with heat or chemicals, which is the opposite approach to freezing.
Word family
Commonly confused: freeze off or freeze out?
freeze off vs freeze out
Freeze out means to shut someone out socially or competitively. Freeze off is mainly the medical sense of removing a growth.
Practice
The dermatologist decided to ___ the wart with liquid nitrogen rather than cut it away.
Choose one answer.
Freeze off means to remove a growth with extreme cold. Freeze out would mean to exclude a person, and freeze over describes a surface such as a pond turning to ice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “freeze off”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.