freeze/freeze over

[milan2003_07]

Hello everyone,

The sentence below has been taken from the Collins Cobuild Dictionary:

"The air temperature was well below freezing, and lakes and rivers froze over".

Can I use just "freeze" with the same meaning:

"The air temperature was well below freezing, and lakes and rivers froze"?

To add one more question: can I say "The air temperature was well below freezing, and lakes and rivers froze up?"

 

[emsr2d2]

If a lake or river freezes, I assume all the water in it is frozen. If it freezes over, I'd know that the top layer is frozen (possibly enough to walk/skate on) but there might be liquid water running under the surface.

I don't think I'd use "frozen up" in that context at all.