frame
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɹeɪm/
rhymes: -eɪm
Forms: form: frames
form: framing
form: framed
form: framed
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”), from Proto-West Germanic *frammjan, from Proto-Germanic *framjaną (“to further, promote, perform”), 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, foster”), Icelandic fremja (“to commit”). More at from.
Senses: examples: text: I will hereafter frame myself to be coy.
ref: 1578, John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit:
text: frame my face to all occasions
ref: c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: We may in some measure frame our minds for the reception of happiness.
ref: 1828, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney:
text: The human mind is framed to be influenced.
ref: 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
glosses: To fit, as for a specific end or purpose; make suitable or comfortable; adapt; adjust.
examples: text: Nature that fram’d vs of foure Elements,
Warring within our breaſts for regiment,
Doth teach vs all to haue aſpyring minds:
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:
glosses: To construct by fitting together or uniting various parts; fabricate by union of constituent parts.
examples: text: He began to frame the loveliest countenance he could.
ref: a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:
english: The New Arcadia
translation: The New Arcadia
text: How many excellent reasonings are framed in the mind of a man of wisdom and study in a length of years.
ref: 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC:
text: As for America’s constitution, speaking as the court’s originalist-in-chief, all that mattered was what its words meant when it was framed.
ref: 2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist:
glosses: To bring or put into form or order; adjust the parts or elements of; compose; contrive; plan; devise.
examples: text: Once we finish framing the house, we'll hang tin on the roof.
glosses: Of a constructed object such as a building, to put together the structural elements.
glosses: Of a picture such as a painting or photograph, to place inside a decorative border.
examples: text: The director frames the fishing scene very well.
glosses: To position visually within a fixed boundary.
examples: text: How would you frame your accomplishments?
text: The way the opposition has framed the argument makes it hard for us to win.
text: They have framed this sentencing bill as not caring about victims; we have to frame it as preventing government overreach.
glosses: To construct in words so as to establish a context for understanding or interpretation.
examples: text: The gun had obviously been placed in her car in an effort to frame her.
topics: criminology
human-sciences
law
sciences
synonyms: frame up
put up
set up
glosses: Conspire to falsely incriminate an innocent person.
topics: business
mining
glosses: To wash ore with the aid of a frame.
examples: text: An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not "frame off" rewarded my perseverance.
ref: 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 309:
glosses: To move.
examples: text: The beautie of this ſinfull Dame, / Made many Princes thither frame, / To ſeeke her as a bedfellow, / In maryage pleaſures, playfellow:
ref: c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, prologue]:
glosses: To proceed; to go.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
tennis
glosses: To hit (the ball) with the frame of the racquet rather than the strings (normally a mishit).
examples: text: 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
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30:
glosses: To strengthen; refresh; support.
examples: text: All have sworn him an oath that they should frame his will on earth.
text: The silken tackle / Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands / That yarely frame the office.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
glosses: To execute; perform.
examples: text: Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
glosses: To cause; to bring about; to produce.
glosses: To profit; avail.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1531, William Tyndale, An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue:
glosses: To fit; accord.
glosses: To succeed in doing or trying to do something; manage.
Synonyms: sense: conspire to incriminate
word: fit up
Derived terms: beframe
enframe
framable
frameable
frame out
full-frame
inframe
misframe
outframe
reframe
unframe