Definition of "freeze-frame" [freeze-frame]

• A still picture in the course of a movie or television film, made by running a series of identical frames or by stopping a reel or videotape at one desired frame. (noun)
• A vivid, motionless scene or image. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It was as if the trial, and that climactic moment at the end was all a long-form video for him, and the “dance” was the spinning, multi-cut flourish just before the freeze-frame ending."
• "God, if I could get my hands on a freeze-frame shot of my face at that moment."
• "The release of motion discovers a kind of calm; the film's closing shot, a freeze-frame of Doinel running by the ocean, grasps him in a moment of hopefulness."