frame

verb

1. (transitive)To fit, as for a specific end or purpose; make suitable or comfortable; adapt; adjust.

   “I will hereafter frame myself to be coy.”

   “frame my face to all occasions”

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

   “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.

   “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.

   “He began to frame the loveliest countenance he could.”

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

   “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)To 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. (transitive)To place (a picture such as a painting or photograph) 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)Conspire to falsely incriminate an innocent person.

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

9. (dialectal, intransitive)To wash ore with the aid of a frame.
10. (dialectal, intransitive)To move.

    “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.

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

12. To hit (the ball) with the frame of the racquet rather than the strings (normally a mishit).
13. (obsolete, transitive)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”

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

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

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

15. (obsolete, transitive)To cause; to bring about; to produce.

    “Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds.”

16. (intransitive, obsolete)To profit; avail.
17. (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.”

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

noun

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.

   “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.”

   “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.”

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

   “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.

   “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.”

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

7. A conspiracy to falsely incriminate an innocent person.

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

8. A complete game of snooker, from break-off until all the balls (or as many as necessary to win) have been potted.
9. An independent chunk of data sent over a network.
10. 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.
11. The 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.”

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

    “a forcing-frame; a cucumber frame”

13. The outer decorated portion of a stamp's image, often repeated on several issues although the inner picture may change.
14. The outer circle of a cancellation mark.
15. 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. (slang)An inning.
18. (UK, dated)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”

    “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.

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

21. (dated)A stage or location in a video game.

    “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.”

    “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.”

    “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. A way of dividing nucleotide sequences into a set of consecutive triplets.
23. A form of knowledge representation in artificial intelligence.
24. A complete lattice in which meets distribute over arbitrary joins.
25. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping)Clipping of page frame or memory frame.

name

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