fraim

Noun

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.
   • 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...
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.

   Synonyms:

   carriage

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...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.
   • 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...
6. A context for understanding or interpretation.
   • In this frame, it's easy to ask the question that the investigators missed.

See all 45 meanings of frame