frame

      English

      Etymology

      From Middle English framen, fremen, fremmen (“to construct, build, strengthen, refresh, perform, execute, profit, avail”), from Old English framian, fremian, fremman (“to profit, avail, advance, perform, promote, execute, commit, do”), from Proto-Germanic *framjaną (“to perform, promote”), from Proto-Indo-European *promo- (“front, forward”). Cognate with Low German framen (“to commit, effect”), Danish fremme (“to promote, further, perform”), Swedish främja (“to promote, encourage, forster”), Icelandic fremja (“to commit”). More at from.

      Pronunciation

      Verb

      frame (third-person singular simple present frames, present participle framing, simple past and past participle framed)

      1. (transitive, obsolete) To strengthen; refresh; support.
        At last, with creeping crooked pace forth came / An old, old man, with beard as white as snow, / That on a staffe his feeble steps did frame. ― Spenser.
      2. (transitive, obsolete) To execute; perform.
        The silken tackle / Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands / That yarely frame the office. ― Shakespeare.
      3. (intransitive, obsolete) To profit; avail.
      4. (intransitive, obsolete) To fit; accord.
        When thou hast turned them all ways, and done thy best to hew them and to make them frame, thou must be fain to cast them out. ― Tyndale.
      5. (intransitive, obsolete) To succeed in doing or trying to do something; manage.
      6. (transitive) To fit, as for a specific end or purpose; make suitable or comfortable; adapt; adjust.
        I will hereafter frame myself to be coy. ― Lyly.
      7. (transitive) To construct by fitting or uniting together various parts; fabricate by union of constituent parts.
      8. (transitive) To bring or put into form or order; adjust the parts or elements of; compose; contrive; plan; devise.
        He began to frame the loveliest countenance he could. ― Sir P. Sidney.
      9. (transitive) Of a constructed object such as a building, to put together the structural elements.
        Once we finish framing the house, we'll hang tin on the roof.
      10. (transitive) Of a picture such as a painting or photograph, to add a decorative border.
      11. (transitive) To position visually within a fixed boundary.
        The director frames the fishing scene very well.
      12. (transitive) To construct in words so as to establish a context for understanding or interpretation.
        How would you frame your accomplishments?
        The way the opposition has framed the argument makes it hard for us to win.
      13. (transitive, criminology) Conspire to incriminate falsely a presumably innocent person.
        The gun had obviously been placed in her car in an effort to frame her.
      14. (intransitive, dialectal, mining) To wash ore with the aid of a frame.
      15. (intransitive, dialectal) To move.
        An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not frame off, rewarded my perseverance. ― E. Brontë.

      Synonyms

      • (conspire to incriminate): fit up

      Derived terms

      Translations

      put together the structural elements
      add a decorative border to a picture
      position visually within a fixed boundary
      establish a context in words
      cause a person to appear guilty

      Noun

      A picture frame.
      A bicycle frame (diamond frame).

      frame (plural frames)

      1. The structural elements of a building or other constructed object.
        Now that the frame is complete, we can start on the walls.
      2. The structure of a person's body.
        His starved flesh hung loosely on his once imposing frame.
      3. A rigid, generally rectangular mounting for paper, canvas or other flexible material.
        The painting was housed in a beautifully carved frame.
      4. A piece of photographic film containing an image.
        A film projector shows many frames in a single second.
        • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift
          Jokes are recycled so frequently, it’s as if comedy writing was eating a hole in the ozone layer: If the audience had a nickel for every time a character on one side of the frame says something could never happen as it simultaneously happens on the other side of the frame, they’d have enough to pay the surcharge for the movie’s badly implemented 3-D.
      5. A context for understanding or interpretation.
        In this frame, it's easy to ask the question that the investigators missed.
      6. (snooker) A complete game of snooker, from break-off until all the balls (or as many as necessary to win) have been potted.
      7. (networking) An independent chunk of data sent over a network.
      8. (bowling) A set of balls whose results are added together for scoring purposes. Usually two balls, but only one ball in the case of a strike, and three balls in the case of a strike or a spare in the last frame of a game.
      9. (philately) The outer decorated portion of a stamp's image, often repeated on several issues although the inner picture may change.
      10. (film, animation) A division of time on a multimedia timeline, such as 1/30th of a second.
      11. (Internet) An individually scrollable region of a webpage.
      12. (baseball, slang) An inning

      Quotations

      • 1696, William Stephens, An Account of the Growth of Deism in England, page 17:
        ...It regulates and governs the Passions of the Mind, and brings them into due moderation and frame...

      Translations

      structural elements of a building or other constructed object
      structure of a person's body
      rigid, generally rectangular mounting
      piece of photographic film containing an image
      complete game of snooker
      chunk of data
      division of a second
      The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
      Translations to be checked

      Derived terms

      ↑Jump back a section

      Dutch

      Noun

      frame n (plural frames, diminutive framepje)

      1. (snooker) frame

      Anagrams

      ↑Jump back a section
      Last modified on 13 June 2013, at 21:05