frame

• IPA^(key): /fɹeɪm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪm

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.

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

1. (transitive) To fit, as for a specific end or purpose; make suitable or comfortable; adapt; adjust.
   • 1578, John Lyly, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit:

     I will hereafter frame myself to be coy.

   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     frame my face to all occasions

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

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

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

     The human mind is framed to be influenced.

2. (transitive) To construct by fitting together or uniting various parts; fabricate by union of constituent parts.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: 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:

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

3. (transitive) To bring or put into form or order; adjust the parts or elements of; compose; contrive; plan; devise.
   • 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:

     He began to frame the loveliest countenance he could.

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

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

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

     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.

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.

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

8. (transitive, criminology) Conspire to falsely incriminate an innocent person.

   Synonyms: frame up, put up, set up

   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.
    • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIII, in Wuthering Heights: , volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, , →OCLC, 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, [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.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30:

      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

14. (transitive, obsolete) To execute; perform.

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

    • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      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 (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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds.

16. (intransitive, obsolete) To profit; avail.
17. (intransitive, obsolete) To fit; accord.
    • 1531, William Tyndale, An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue:

      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.

18. (intransitive, obsolete) To succeed in doing or trying to do something; manage.

• (conspire to incriminate): fit up

• → Dutch: frame
• → German: framen

From Middle English frame (“profit, benefit, advantage; a structure composed according to a plan”), from the verb (above) and also from Old Norse frami (“advantage, fame, bravery, efficiency, privilege, honor”); and frame (“a framework or structure of any kind”) which is of uncertain origin. The latter is usually regarded as a derivative of former; however, compare the rare Anglo-Norman and Old French frame, fraine (“frame, framework”), itself of uncertain origin, which might be a borrowing from the English, from the Norse, or even possibly ultimately from Frankish *hramu (“frame”) related to Dutch raam (“window 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. Anything composed of parts fitted and united together; a fabric; a structure.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: 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:

     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.

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

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

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.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section 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.
   • 1918, W B Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

   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.

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

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

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. (bowling) The complete set of pins to be knocked down in their starting configuration.
    • 1878, John Henry Walsh, British Rural Sports, page 712:

      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.

11. (horticulture) A movable structure used for the cultivation or the sheltering of plants.

    a forcing-frame; a cucumber frame

12. (philately) The outer decorated portion of a stamp's image, often repeated on several issues although the inner picture may change.
13. (philately) The outer circle of a cancellation mark.
15. (electronics, film, animation, video games) A division of time on a multimedia timeline, such as 1/30 or 1/60 of a second.
16. (Internet) An individually scrollable region of a webpage.
17. (baseball, slang) An inning.
18. (engineering, dated, chiefly UK) Any of certain machines built upon or within framework.

    a stocking frame; a lace frame; a spinning frame

19. (dated) Frame of mind; disposition.

    to be always in a happy frame

    • 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter XVI, in Wuthering Heights‎:

      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.

20. (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  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

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

21. (dated, video games) A stage or location in a video game.
    • 1982, Gilsoft International, Mongoose (video game instructions)

      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.

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

      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.

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

      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.

22. (genetics, "reading frame") A way of dividing nucleotide sequences into a set of consecutive triplets.
23. (computing) A form of knowledge representation in artificial intelligence.
24. (mathematics) A complete lattice in which meets distribute over arbitrary joins.

• 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...

• → Korean: 프레임 (peureim)
• → Swahili: fremu

• feMRA, fream

Borrowed from English frame.

• Audio:

  (file)

frame n (plural frames, diminutive framepje n)

1. (snooker) frame
2. (construction) frame

• afrem, farme, rem af

frame

1. inflection of framen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

Unadapted borrowing from English frame.

frame m (plural frames)

1. (networking) frame (independent chunk of data)
2. (Internet) frame (individually scrollable region of a webpage)
3. frame (individual image emitted by a projector or monitor)