frame
see also: Frame
Pronunciation Verb

frame (frames, present participle framing; past and past participle framed)

  1. (transitive) To fit, as for a specific end or purpose; make suitable or comfortable; adapt; adjust.
    • quote en
    • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      frame my face to all occasions
    • quote en
    • quote en
  2. (transitive) To construct by fitting or uniting together various parts; fabricate by union of constituent parts.
  3. (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.
    • quote en
  4. (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.
  5. (transitive) Of a picture such as a painting or photograph, to place inside a decorative border.
  6. (transitive) To position visually within a fixed boundary.
    The director frames the fishing scene very well.
  7. (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.
  8. (transitive, criminology) Conspire to incriminate falsely a presumably innocent person. See frameup.
    The gun had obviously been placed in her car in an effort to frame her.
  9. (intransitive, dialectal, mining) To wash ore with the aid of a frame.
  10. (intransitive, dialectal) To move.
    • 1845 October – 1846 June, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIII, in Wuthering Heights: A Novel, volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, […], published December 1847, OCLC 156123328 ↗, page 309 ↗:
      An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not "frame off" rewarded my perseverance.
  11. (intransitive, obsolete) To proceed; to go.
    • c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon,  […], published 1609, OCLC 78596089 ↗, [Act I, scene prologue]:
      The beautie of this ſinfull Dame, / Made many Princes thither frame, / To ſeeke her as a bedfellow, / In maryage pleaſures, playfellow:
  12. (tennis) To hit (the ball) with the frame of the racquet rather than the strings (normally a mishit).
  13. (transitive, obsolete) To strengthen; refresh; support.
    • quote en
  14. (transitive, obsolete) To execute; perform.
    All have sworn him an oath that they should frame his will on earth.
    • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:
      The silken tackle / Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands / That yarely frame the office.
  15. (transitive, obsolete) To cause; to bring about; to produce.
    • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:
      Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds.
  16. (intransitive, obsolete) To profit; avail.
  17. (intransitive, obsolete) To fit; accord.
    • quote en
  18. (intransitive, obsolete) To succeed in doing or trying to do something; manage.
Synonyms
  • (conspire to incriminate) fit up
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

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. Anything composed of parts fitted and united together; a fabric; a structure.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 5”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, / Almighty! thine this universal frame.
  3. The structure of a person's body; the human body.
    His starved flesh hung loosely on his once imposing frame.
    • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXXIV:
      There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met / To view the last of me, a living frame / For one more picture! […]
    • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xi ↗:
      The high school had a send-off in my honour. It was an uncommon thing for a young man of Rajkot to go to England. I had written out a few words of thanks. But I could scarcely stammer them out. I remember how my head reeled and how my whole frame shook as I stood up to read them.
  4. A rigid, generally rectangular mounting for paper, canvas or other flexible material.
    The painting was housed in a beautifully carved frame.
  5. A piece of photographic film containing an image.
    • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift
      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.
    A film projector shows many frames in a single second.
  6. A context for understanding or interpretation.
    In this frame, it's easy to ask the question that the investigators missed.
  7. (snooker) A complete game of snooker, from break-off until all the balls (or as many as necessary to win) have been potted.
  8. (networking) An independent chunk of data sent over a network.
  9. (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.
  10. (horticulture) A movable structure used for the cultivation or the sheltering of plants.
    a forcing-frame; a cucumber frame
  11. (philately) The outer decorated portion of a stamp's image, often repeated on several issues although the inner picture may change.
  12. (philately) The outer circle of a cancellation mark.
  13. (electronics, film, animation, video games) A division of time on a multimedia timeline, such as 1/30th or 1/60th of a second.
  14. (Internet) An individually scrollable region of a webpage.
  15. (baseball, slang) An inning.
  16. (engineering, dated, mostly, UK) Any of certain machines built upon or within framework.
    a stocking frame; a lace frame; a spinning frame
  17. (dated) Frame of mind; disposition.
    to be always in a happy frame
  18. (obsolete) Contrivance; the act of devising or scheming.
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:
      John the bastard / Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies.
  19. (dated, video games) A stage or level of a video game.
    • 1982, Gilsoft International, Mongoose (video game instructions) [ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games-info/m/Mongoose.txt]
      When you play the game it will draw a set pattern depending on the frame you are on, with random additions to the pattern, to give a different orchard each time.
  20. (genetics, "reading frame") A way of dividing nucleotide sequences into a set of consecutive triplets.
  21. (computing) A form of knowledge representation in artificial intelligence.
  22. (mathematics) A complete lattice in which meets distribute over arbitrary joins.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
Frame
Proper noun
  1. Surname
  2. An unincorporated community in Kanawha County, West Virginia.



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