[myNetWords.com]
The word “freeze” has been suggested by Docteur Moundir. On the web, it’s a bringer of bad news. If your screen freezes, it means it’s blocked and you are faced with a blue screen, so that you have to "reboot", in other words restart your computer. This could mean that your computer has overheated because it isn’t properly ventilated. You will, in any case, need to review your configuration. The word "freeze" has also come to be commonly used by lovers of online gaming, to mean blocking another player, neutralising him, in other words preventing him from playing for a given length of time. Usually, it’s the administrator of the game who takes the decision to use this method to sanction a player who has been too aggressive, criticising or insulting other players. By immobilising him for several minutes, the administrator hopes to calm him down and bring him back to behaving normally.
Freeze
Updated : Wednesday 30 November 2011
The whole question is what we mean by normal behaviour, given that it’s normal to be somewhat over-excited after you’ve been playing Counterstrike for 4 solid hours. But it’s all there on the web, and the administrators of a game (the referees) can draw on a whole arsenal of sanctions to keep the game properly on track. They can freeze the player, burn him, “slay” him, kick him out of the current game, or even drug him or blow him up …or — and this is the ultimate sanction — ban him, banishing him completely from the server.
In general, this last sanction is reserved for players who really lose their rag and let loose with insults, racist remarks or defamatory statements.
“Freezing” as a virtual torture leaves no trace and there’s no legal sanction. It would be good to have weapons like that IRL (in real life) to be able to bring our kids or teenagers into line, not to mention parents or any other friend who oversteps the boundaries.
In any case, the word “freeze” is used so often by young people that it has started to leak into our everyday language. Before long, quite likely, you won’t be saying “I’m not getting anywhere with this job”, but “this job has frozen”. Or how about "just calm down or I’ll freeze you", as a nicer and, well, so much cooler, way of telling someone to "shut up or get out!"
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