Frame

How to spell frame

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce frame

What does frame mean?

1. nounA rigid structure that surrounds, supports, or encloses something.
2. verbTo put together, shape, or express something in a particular way.
3. verbTo produce false evidence so that an innocent person appears guilty.

Frame in a sentence

• noun

  The photograph sat in a silver frame on the desk.

• verb

  The lawyers will frame their argument around the new evidence.

• verb

  The suspect claimed that rivals had tried to frame him for the robbery.

• noun

  A crack ran along the wooden window frame.

• verb

  Carpenters frame the house before the walls go up.

• verb

  Corrupt officers conspired to frame an innocent man.

Where does frame come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English verb framian, which meant 'to be helpful' or 'to make progress', and from the related fram, meaning 'forward' or 'vigorous'. The underlying sense was one of moving things forward, and from there the meaning shifted toward shaping, building, and putting together. By the medieval period 'frame' had settled into the idea of constructing something from fitted parts, which is why a wooden or metal structure that holds a picture or window came to be called a frame. The same root gives us the modern phrase 'frame of mind', a state put together or arranged in the head. The much later slang sense of 'framing' someone, meaning to arrange false evidence against them, is simply this old idea of constructing or putting together applied dishonestly.

How the word is built

• frame (from Old English framian: to be helpful, to make progress; later 'to construct, shape')