Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) of people or objects, to be very keen on, to fancy greatly.

1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 209: freeze. [...] Thus we freeze to apples in the orchards, to fellows whom we electioneer for in our secret societies, and alas! some even go so far as to freeze to the ladies.
1870		C.G. Leland ‘Steinli von Slang’ Hans Breitmann in Church 139: Goot Lort!-How we’d froze to de ready! / Boot mit him ’dvas a different ding.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home 333: When I know a man and like him, I freeze to him.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Nov. 3/4: Finally I froze to a second wife.
1883		Graphic 17 Mar. 287/1: If there was one institution which the Anglo-Indian froze to more than another, it was his sit-down supper and – its consequences [F&H].
c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. viii: 🌐 Fair chased with every (adj.) description o’ slants, an’ never froze on to one o’ them.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 188: He freezes to her like a Park Row wuxtree boy does to a turkey drumstick at a newsies’ Christmas dinner.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 July 2nd sect. 17/7: He is persona grate with a lot of financial editors [...] who don't generally freeze onto to blokes whose only assets are cast iron confidence [...] and enigmatical boodle.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 142: He still freezes to the notion that Cousin Clifford’s just a well-meanin’, corn-fed innocent.

2. (orig. US) to retain possession of.

1909		Wodehouse Mike & Psmith [ebook] ‘I do happen to have a quid. You can freeze on to it, if you like’.
1931		F.A. Waterhouse ’Twixt Hell & Allah 58: ‘Gee, brother, you’ve said it. I never thought that out. They may freeze onto the lot’ [i.e. 100-dollar bills].