1A rigid structure that surrounds something such as a picture, door, or windowpane.

1. 1.1frames A metal or plastic structure holding the lenses of a pair of glasses.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • He wore those late '70s style of eyeglasses, with the enormous, thick lenses and black frames as thick as copper tubing.
   • Looking up, my eyes met two warm brown eyes peering at me through a pair of glasses with thin oval frames.
   • With mineral crystal lenses, hand-made titanium frames, and silicone nose and ear tips, these glasses aren't for the thrifty.
   • Don't assume that people with light hued tresses should only wear light colored frames or lenses.
   • Customers not only get information on what eyewear accessories they want to buy, but will also receive advice on the frames and lenses best suited to them.
   • Dave produced a pair of glasses with black frames.
   • Anyone needing glasses is fitted with frames and lenses before they leave.
   • All men should be aware of the impact a nice pair of frames can have on their overall image.
   • Benefits include an eye exam every 12 months, a pair of prescription lenses and frames or contact lenses every 24 months.
   • I was convinced there were no lenses in the frames and they were simply a distraction tactic.
   • The trick though is of course finding the best pair of frames to complement her face.
   • His glasses were solid black frames with rather square lenses that gave a harsh professorial authority to his gentle blue eyes behind them.
   • Metal frames are sturdier, giving you a more masculine appearance.
   • Round frames can soften features like a strong jaw line or broad forehead.
   • All the gold frame spectacles are separated, then lenses removed and frames sent away.
   • They have a thin metal frame with slightly tinted lenses for bright light absorption and 100 % UV protection.
   • Suddenly, my glasses looked too severe, squared black plastic frames with wide ear pieces.
   • The glasses will then be transported to prisons, where inmates are trained how to read lens strength, fix frames and label and package them for export to their destination country.
   • You got to the opticians, put on some frames - with no lenses in - and look in the mirror.
   • Usually made of plastic, the frames of these glasses practically stick to your face thanks to their shape and design.
   • People with blond or light brown hair tend to look good in lightweight metal frames.
2. 1.2 The rigid supporting structure of an object such as a vehicle, building, or piece of furniture.
   the wooden frame of the huge bed

   an old bicycle frame

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The school had been one of the few two storey buildings in the village, and the hundred year old wooden frame shook when vehicles passed along the road below.
   • These cages are made of aluminum tubing with a steel frame, and the door is made out of thin aluminum.
   • The light alloy rear body is fitted with a canvas roof over a supporting frame.
   • The mangled metal frames of what were once York phone boxes are testament to a new, and potentially lethal, craze.
   • In the residential industry, some basement floors are cast before the frame of the building is installed.
   • The stools have metal frames and inverted steel ‘plates’ for seats.
   • The metal frames of the chairs were all that was left in the ashes of the bonfire.
   • The Wakefield-based firm makes frames for glass-walled buildings and last year it was sold to a consortium of businessmen for £16m.
   • The tarpaulin sheets for the roofs of the stalls went first, followed by the counter boards and finally the heavy metal frames.
   • Giant billboards have fallen; their rusted metal frames are bent like clay.
   • One problem is that many buildings in Japan have wooden frames and tile roofs.
   • The delicate procedure saw a crane winch the wooden frame on top of the building before workmen set about ensuring every beam was in the right place.
   • The two pieces that compose the front half are joined and reinforced with a roof frame that surrounds them.
   • Eastern woodlands and Great Lakes tribes created domed houses using lightweight stick frames covered by bark or woven mats.
   • Each section has its own ‘room,’ usually outlined by walls made of chain-link fencing on metal support frames.
   • For environmental reasons the structure has a wooden frame.
   • The metal frames are removed once the walls are frozen solid which takes anywhere (in Quebec climate) from ten hours to three days.
   • Most other timber-frame systems here use traditional masonry on top of the structural frame of the building.
   • The town dump was situated there, and all sorts of oddments, like old bicycle frames could be found there.
   • Concrete use is also increasing in building with structural steel frames.

   Synonyms

   framework, structure, substructure, skeleton, chassis, shell, casing, body, bodywork

   support, scaffolding, foundation
3. 1.3 A boxlike structure of glass or plastic in which seeds or young plants are grown.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Some of the alpines are afforded a little protection from the winter wet, and netted cages have been built over nursery frames to prevent seedling damage from cats and birds.
   • Once you have the frame constructed remove any weeds or grass inside the frame so this vegetation does not grow up through your propagation bed.
   • Most came through the winter in a cool greenhouse, grew on in pots in a shaded frame for the following year and flowered the year after in their permanent positions.
   • I give the young seedlings some winter protection in a frame and leave them in the seed pot until spring when they can be potted on.
   • After he slid the pieces together, Ray stapled clear, heavy plastic to the top of the frame.
4. 1.4 An apparatus with a surrounding structure, especially one used in weaving, knitting, or embroidery.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Later, as fitted her new-found piety, she received such petitions at an embroidery frame.
   • One lady, a rucksack, two bags, an embroidery frame and a cactus went from Kent to Bow?
   • Now the frame looms specially designed to handle the synthetic yarn have doubled the income of the weavers.
   • Students will use a small weaving frame to learn how to weave and work with wool.
   • It was not until the invention of the frame for knitting stockings by William Lee in the year 1589 that knitted garments came to the fore.
5. 1.5archaic in singular The universe, or part of it, regarded as an embracing structure.
   this goodly frame the Earth

   Example sentencesExamples

   • For we know that if the earthly frame that houses us today should be demolished, we possess a building which God has provided - a house not made of human hands, eternal, and in heaven.
   • For Newton there had once been a true uncorrupted monotheistic religion, in which the frame of the world had been studied, as he believed it should, as the true temple of a living God.
   • He has the voice that shakes the very frame of the universe and makes you wish to be unborn.

2A person's body with reference to its size or build.

3usually in singular A basic structure that underlies or supports a system, concept, or text.

1. 3.1technical
   short for frame of reference
2. 3.2archaic in singular The structure, constitution, or nature of someone or something.
   we have in our inward frame various affections

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It distorts our inward frame, and unsettles the adjustments of our minds.
   • The werewolf could be a benign individual, trapped within a bestial frame.
   • Whatever be our inward frame, we are apt to perceive a wonderful congeniality in the world without us.
   • It assumed this flesh in the same way that the blood vessels provide a frame for the flesh and carry the blood, yet are not themselves blood.
   • Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

4Linguistics
A structural environment within which a class of words or other linguistic units can be correctly used. For example I — him is a frame for a large class of transitive verbs.

1. 4.1 A feature which marks a transition from one section of discourse to another.
   frames are realized by linguistic items such as ‘well’, ‘right’, and ‘OK’

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Use frames such as ‘What if…’ and ‘Wouldn't it be nice if…’ amongst others, and as you play with those thoughts they'll become more familiar and more believable.
   • Frames, such as OK, So, Well, and Now, uttered with a high-fall intonation contour and preceded and followed by a pause, serve to mark closure of old topics and introduction of new ones.
2. 4.2 A section of a discourse separated by a frame.
   pragmatically asides step back from the ongoing interpretative frame

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Conversely, interactional difficulties may lead to an unexpected shift in frame and discourse type.
   • She remarks transitions from one frame to the next, rendering repetitive elements caught from slightly different points of view.
3. 4.3 (in semantics) an underlying conceptual structure into which the meanings of a number of related words fit.
   the frame of verbs of perception

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Hence, the phonological frame of verbs is a proper subset of the phonological frame of nouns in Dutch.
   • There are two basic differences, however, between the case frame of verbs of motion and that of verbs of transfer.
4. 4.4 A social context determining the interpretation of an utterance.
   an utterance may mean the opposite of what it says if used within a frame of teasing

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A dialogue, based to an extent on differing interpretations and differing frames for reading situations, has emerged.
   • For example, the utterance ‘Nice shirt’ between two friends will have one meaning in the chatting frame as opposed to the teasing frame.
   • The ‘play’ frame, like the related frame of ‘humor,’ brackets an encounter, setting it apart from ongoing, more ‘serious’ life.
   • Conversational humour involves the establishment of a ‘play frame’.
   • In a somewhat joking frame, Mr. Morris quipped, ‘He is skilled at aggravating us and producing tension in the household.’

5A single complete picture in a series forming a cinema, television, or video film.

1. 5.1 A single picture in a comic strip.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Then, in the comic's final frame, Cathy says, ‘At least we'll always have the prints.’
   • ‘They still can be heroes, even without superpowers,’ the Man of Steel tells a crowd of adults and children in the last frame of the comic book
   • But Roy would take a single frame from a cartoon or comic strip and turn it into an entire painting.
   • The comic strip ends with a frame featuring an aged Bible John wandering the streets of Glasgow in the present day.
2. 5.2Computing A graphic panel in a display window, especially in a web browser, which encloses a self-contained section of data and permits multiple independent document viewing.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • If, like most people, you're using a graphical browser, after login you see two frames.
   • Even if users do click on an offer, they're never far from the site, since the new page opens up within the current frame.
   • Users especially like the idea that the result list is constantly available within the left frame.
   • To navigate the review simply click on the section headings in the frame above.
   • The overall layout of the scroll bars and the way the frames are displayed is very impressive.

6The triangular structure for positioning the red balls in snooker.

1. 6.1 A single game of snooker.
   Jones won the first four frames

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Body language experts could have a field day at the Crucible observing players' behaviour between frames.
   • The couple were back home on Saturday and for club regulars it was an average lunchtime - playing a few frames of snooker, watching the football on Sky and sinking a pint or two.
   • More than 680 frames of top-flight snooker were played in 47 matches over 12 days in York last year.
   • Hunter then extended his lead to four frames by winning the last of the session with two breaks of 35.
   • By the end of the second session, the 2002 world champion was four frames adrift of his opponent.

1Place (a picture or photograph) in a frame.

1. 1.1 Surround so as to create a striking or attractive image.
   a short style cut to frame the face

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Again, in the background, one can make out a type of building, and the entire picture is framed by many trees, as opposed to the two trees in the previous picture.
   • Iranian women are known for large eyes framed by thick eyelashes, and dark, shapely eyebrows.
   • The idea was to open and frame attractive views of the historic buildings.
   • This beautiful, decrepit city is at its most breathtaking at night, when thousands of lights of the houses on the surrounding hills frame and light up the bay.
   • There are many exquisite details, carved doorways, potted plants framed by shaded windows.
   • Fake crystal chandeliers sparkled above the stage and the performance space was framed by red valour curtains.
   • Even the gate is a work of art; the rose-covered metal arbor and upward-arching gate create a circle that frames attractive views.
   • There, the city is framed by the mountains, but not overwhelmed by them.
   • With a charming face framed by curly hair, she soon became a star.
   • Her luscious hair hung about her neck and shoulders, framing an attractive face.
   • Her hair was perfectly framing her face and her fit body was tastefully dressed in a sleek black dress.
   • Her brown hair fell in silky waves, the curls artfully framing her face.
   • He lay in bed looking out of that window, seeing the bougainvillea frame a picture of two golfers at the fifth tee.
   • Moving images, including those framed by car windows, give us the possibility of seeing landscape as variable rather than fixed, as in landscape paintings.
   • The narrow painted borders create a portal or threshold that frames the interior to give the illusion of deep space, a familiar painting convention.
   • Her violet eyes were framed by long lashes.
   • At the Music Center, another sculpture by Graham, an open bronze door, frames city hall like a formal portrait.
   • An L-shaped block of yellow on the left nicely frames the page.
   • As soon as she saw the bright, cheerful face, framed by soft blond curls, she giggled.
   • Shocked, she stops, gathers her robe and advances just a bit, to be framed perfectly in the doorway.

2Formulate (a concept, plan, or system)

1. 2.1 Form or articulate (words)
   he walked out before she could frame a reply

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A series of Gallup polls from 1982 to 2001 reveal similar findings (although the question was framed differently).
   • Conventional explanations of the high cost of space tend to be framed in terms of the laws of physics.
   • Daniel hesitated, trying to frame his words in the nicest possible way.
   • That is why the attack on Britain's rebate has been framed in terms of concern that the poorer EU entrants should not be asked to pay money to one of the richest European nations.
   • He was nevertheless forced to frame his words welcoming the move carefully, to ensure that his political enemies were not given any ammunition they could use against him.
   • You would definitely frame your words in your own way and pray to the Lord for me.
   • Yet much of the debate over civil liberties in wartime has, to this point, been framed in all-or-nothing terms.
   • I am not a supporter of the censorship of any voice, but I do believe the dialogue must be framed respectfully.
   • The arguments were framed in a very academic fashion.
   • Nor does he bother with minor matters: his interest is only in the larger issues, so it pays to frame questions accordingly.
   • Arguments framed in terms of fear may easily be represented as irrational and therefore illegitimate in terms of political debate.
   • The words were not framed in that rhetorical and hopeless way they often are following news of a tragedy.
   • Instead, you need to frame and word your question precisely to get what you want.
   • But it is the environmentalists who have been most successful in getting the debate framed in words that suit them.
   • In Bakhtin's view, people frame their speech according to the reactions they hope to produce or the impression they want to make.
   • The debate is framed very differently on the two sides of the Atlantic.
   • Charles, perhaps you could frame this in terms of the business issues.
   • All this is true, of course, but framed in quite an amazingly radical way.
   • It is true that Perelman did not frame his idea in political and critical terms, and that he may have been surprised to see it appropriated in such a way.
   • For far too many on the left the issue gets framed as a dispute between civil rights and individual rights, with civil rights having the trump card.
2. 2.2archaic Make or construct (something) by fitting parts together or in accordance with a plan.
   what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Sweet boy, thou art too young and too honest to cope with women, who were framed by the Creator to deceive.
   • The Puritans - who sought to frame their lives according to God's Word and were Edwards' spiritual forebears - wrote a great deal about this subject.
   • A great number of men join in building a house or ship, in rearing a city, in framing a commonwealth: Why may not several Deities combine in contriving and framing a world?
   • Tyger, Tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
   • If he allows that God framed the universe, why not allow that God manages it?

   Synonyms

   construct, build, manufacture, make, create, fabricate, contrive

3informal Produce false evidence against (an innocent person) so that they appear guilty.