frame

present singular third person frames · participle present framing · participle past framed · past framed

1. transitiveTo fit, as for a specific end or purpose; make suitable or comfortable; adapt; adjust.

   frame my face to all occasions

   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]

   3 more examples

   I will hereafter frame myself to be coy.

   1578, John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit

   We may in some measure frame our minds for the reception of happiness.

   1828, Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney

   The human mind is framed to be influenced.

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo construct by fitting together or uniting various parts; fabricate by union of constituent parts.

   Nature that fram’d vs of foure Elements, Warring within our breaſts for regiment, Doth teach vs all to haue aſpyring minds:

   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

3. transitiveTo 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.

   The New Arcadia

   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

   2 more examples

   How many excellent reasonings are framed in the mind of a man of wisdom and study in a length of years.

   1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC

   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.

   2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist

4. transitiveTo put together the structural elements of (a constructed object such as a building).

   Once we finish framing the house, we'll hang tin on the roof.

5. transitiveTo place (a picture such as a painting or photograph) inside a decorative border.
6. transitiveTo position visually within a fixed boundary.

   Round glasses would frame your face perfectly.

   2 more examples

   The director frames the fishing scene very well.

   In the dining room, Savonarola chairs frame a burlwood table, while in the primary bedroom, flea-market art mingles with a Chinese Art Deco rug.

   2026 May 28, Ingrid Abramovitch, “Big Easy Does It”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, page 22

7. transitiveTo construct in words so as to establish a context for understanding or interpretation.

   How would you frame your accomplishments?

   2 more examples

   The way the opposition has framed the argument makes it hard for us to win.

   They have framed this sentencing bill as not caring about victims; we have to frame it as preventing government overreach.

8. transitivecriminologyConspire to falsely incriminate an innocent person.

   The gun had obviously been placed in her car in an effort to frame her.

   Synonyms: frame up, put up, set up, fit up

9. dialectalintransitivebusinessTo wash ore with the aid of a frame.
10. dialectalintransitiveTo move.

    An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not "frame off" rewarded my perseverance.

    1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIII, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 309

11. intransitiveobsoleteTo proceed; to go.

    The beautie of this ſinfull Dame, / Made many Princes thither frame, / To ſeeke her as a bedfellow, / In maryage pleaſures, playfellow:

    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]

12. hobbiesTo hit (the ball) with the frame of the racquet rather than the strings (normally a mishit).
13. obsoletetransitiveTo 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

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30

14. obsoletetransitiveTo execute; perform.

    All have sworn him an oath that they should frame his will on earth.

    1 more example

    The silken tackle / Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands / That yarely frame the office.

    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]

15. obsoletetransitiveTo cause; to bring about; to produce.

    Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds.

    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]

16. intransitiveobsoleteTo profit; avail.
17. intransitiveobsoleteTo 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.

    1531, William Tyndale, An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue

18. intransitiveobsoleteTo succeed in doing or trying to do something; manage.

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.

   These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, / Almighty! thine this universal frame.

   1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   1 more example

   The chiefeſt God firſt moouer of that Spheare, Enchac’d with thouſands euer ſhining lamps, Will ſooner burne the glorious frame of Heauen, Then ſhould it ſo conſpire my ouerthrow.

   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 IIII, scene ii

3. A human body or the structure thereof; the size, shape, sturdiness etc. of a person's body as described in a certain way; one's build.

   His starved flesh hung loosely on his once imposing frame.

   2 more examples

   There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met / To view the last of me, a living frame / For one more picture! […]

   1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXXIV

   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.

   1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XI, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC

   Synonyms: carriage

4. A rigid, generally rectangular mounting for paper, canvas or other flexible material.

   The painting was housed in a beautifully carved frame.

   1 more example

   He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

5. A piece of photographic film containing an image.

   A film projector shows many frames in a single second.

   1 more example

   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.

6. A context for understanding or interpretation.

   In this frame, it's easy to ask the question that the investigators missed.

   2 more examples

   Interests groups compete to have their preferred frames shape policy discussions.

   2020 May, Kelcie Ralph, Ian Girardeau, “Distracted by “distracted pedestrians”?”, in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, volume 5

   As the philosophers Stephen Cave and Kanta Dihal note, other societies have different frames, and America could learn much by looking at that—particularly in Asia.

   2026 September 5, Gillian Tett, “America must learn AI lessons from Astro Boy”, in FT Weekend (Opinion section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9

7. crimeA conspiracy to falsely incriminate an innocent person.

   Didn't you ever wonder this whole thing may be a frame?

   1980, Paul Schrader, American Gigolo, spoken by Julian Kaye (Richard Gere)

8. ball gamesA complete game of snooker, from break-off until all the balls (or as many as necessary to win) have been potted.
9. computingAn independent chunk of data sent over a network.
10. bowlingA 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.
11. bowlingThe complete set of pins to be knocked down in their starting configuration.

    In knockemdowns and bowls ten pins are used, the centre one being called the king, and the ball has to be grounded before it reaches the frame.

    1878, John Henry Walsh, British Rural Sports, page 712

12. agricultureA movable structure used for the cultivation or the sheltering of plants.

    a forcing-frame; a cucumber frame

13. hobbiesThe outer decorated portion of a stamp's image, often repeated on several issues although the inner picture may change.
14. hobbiesThe outer circle of a cancellation mark.
15. animationbroadcastingA division of time on a multimedia timeline, such as 1/30 or 1/60 of a second.
16. InternetAn individually scrollable rectangular region of a web page, forming part of a frameset.
17. slangball gamesAn inning.
18. UKdatedengineeringAny of certain machines built upon or within framework.

    a stocking frame; a lace frame; a spinning frame

19. datedFrame of mind; disposition.

    to be always in a happy frame

    1 more example

    And I partook of the infinite calm in which she lay: my mind was never in a holier frame than while I gazed on that untroubled image of Divine rest.

    1847, Emily Brontë, chapter XVI, in Wuthering Heights

20. obsoleteContrivance; the act of devising or scheming.

    John the bastard / Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies.

    1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

21. datedvideo gamesA stage or location in a video game.

    Hunchback looks very good, bright, cheerful and with a loud tune. I think it could have had a bit more sound during the frame though.

    1984, "Hunchback" (video game review) in Crash (issue 2, pages 73-74)

    2 more examples

    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.

    1982, Gilsoft International, Mongoose (video game instructions) [ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games-info/m/Mongoose.txt]

    The first frame, funnily enough, brings just the sort of puzzle so rare in the remainder of the adventure whereby either it gets solved or you're left wandering excluded from where it's all happening.

    1985, "Ashkeron!" (video game review) in Crash (issue 18, page 104)

22. "reading frame"biologyA way of dividing nucleotide sequences into a set of consecutive triplets.
23. computingA form of knowledge representation in artificial intelligence.
24. mathematicsA complete lattice in which meets distribute over arbitrary joins.
25. abbreviationclippingoperating systemsClipping of page frame or memory frame.
26. cookingThe carcass of a poultry bird with most of its flesh removed, used for making broth.

    a chicken frame

1. A surname.
2. An unincorporated community in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States.