diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/FreezeStep.java b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/FreezeStep.java
index 4b9c9a24d4caa..3b67e5bdc17d3 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/FreezeStep.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/core/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/core/ilm/FreezeStep.java
@@ -28,4 +28,9 @@ public void performDuringNoSnapshot(IndexMetaData indexMetaData, ClusterState cu
             new FreezeRequest(indexMetaData.getIndex().getName()).masterNodeTimeout(getMasterTimeout(currentState)),
             ActionListener.wrap(response -> listener.onResponse(true), listener::onFailure));
     }
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean isRetryable() {
+        return true;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/TimeSeriesLifecycleActionsIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/TimeSeriesLifecycleActionsIT.java
index f967c3cc4325c..4e700e76eb9a0 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/TimeSeriesLifecycleActionsIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-node/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ilm/TimeSeriesLifecycleActionsIT.java
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ilm.ErrorStep;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ilm.ForceMergeAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ilm.FreezeAction;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ilm.FreezeStep;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ilm.InitializePolicyContextStep;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ilm.LifecycleAction;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.core.ilm.LifecyclePolicy;
@@ -228,6 +229,25 @@ public void testRetryFailedDeleteAction() throws Exception {
         assertBusy(() -> assertFalse(indexExists(index)));
     }
 
+    public void testRetryFreezeDeleteAction() throws Exception {
+        createNewSingletonPolicy("cold", new FreezeAction());
+
+        createIndexWithSettings(index, Settings.builder()
+            .put(IndexMetaData.SETTING_NUMBER_OF_SHARDS, 1)
+            .put(IndexMetaData.SETTING_NUMBER_OF_REPLICAS, 0)
+            .put(IndexMetaData.SETTING_READ_ONLY, true)
+            .put("index.lifecycle.name", policy));
+
+        assertBusy(() -> assertThat(getFailedStepForIndex(index), equalTo(FreezeStep.NAME)));
+        assertFalse(getOnlyIndexSettings(index).containsKey("index.frozen"));
+
+        Request request = new Request("PUT", index + "/_settings");
+        request.setJsonEntity("{\"index.blocks.read_only\":false}");
+        assertOK(client().performRequest(request));
+
+        assertBusy(() -> assertThat(getOnlyIndexSettings(index).get("index.frozen"), equalTo("true")));
+    }
+
     public void testRetryFailedShrinkAction() throws Exception {
         int numShards = 4;
         int divisor = randomFrom(2, 4);