fram´er

frame «fraym», noun, verb, framed, fram|ing.

–n.

1. a support over which something is stretched or built; framework: »

the frame of a house.

2. anything made of parts fitted and joined together; structure or system: »

His [Milton's] death dissolved the whole frame of society (Macaulay).

3. the body; build of the body: »

a man of heavy frame.

4. a skeleton.

5. Figurative. a) the way in which a thing is put together; structure; construction: »

the frame of the Constitution.

b) mental or emotional state.

6. an established order or plan: »

Should the whole frame of Nature round him break…He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack (Joseph Addison).

7. shape or form: »

Put your discourse into some frame (Shakespeare).

8. the border in which a thing is set: »

a window frame, a picture frame.

9. one of the individual pictures on a strip of motion-picture film.

10. one image transmitted by television.

11. one of the units or steps in programmed instruction. Each frame requires some response from the student.

12. a machine constructed on or within a framework.

13. any one of the ten small squares for recording the score for each turn at bowling.

14. one turn at bowling, or one tenth of the game.

15. Informal. an inning in baseball.

16. a) the triangular form used to arrange the balls at the start of a game of pool. b) the triangle of balls thus placed. c) the period of play between the placing of the balls.

17. one of the ribs forming the framework of a ship's hull, extending from the bilge or from the keel to the gunwale on either side. A square frame crosses each deck in a perpendicular plane; a cant frame crosses each deck in an oblique plane.

18. a box with a glass cover, used to protect seeds and young plants from cold; cold frame.

19. U.S. Slang. = frame-up. (Cf. ↑frame-up)

╂[< verb]

–v.t.

1. to shape or form: »

to frame one's life according to a noble pattern. Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time (Shakespeare).

SYNONYM(S): fashion.

2. to put together; plan; make: »

to frame an answer to a difficult question. James Madison helped to frame the Constitution.

SYNONYM(S): devise, fabricate.

3. to put a border around: »

to frame a picture.

4. Slang. to make seem guilty by some false arrangement: »

to frame an innocent person.

5. Archaic. to direct (one's steps).

–v.i. Dialect.

1. to prepare, attempt, or manage to do something.

2. to succeed; do well.

3. to betake oneself; go.

╂[Middle English framen to join or frame timber, Old English framian to profit < fram forth]

–fram´a|ble,

–frame´a|ble, adjective.

–frame´less, adjective.

–fram´er, noun.