- 1 [countable] a strong border or structure of wood, metal, etc. that holds a picture, door, piece of glass, etc. in position a picture frame aluminium window frames I'm going to paint the door frame white. Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivedoor, window, photo, … prepositionin a/the frame See full entry See related entries: The art world, Art equipment structure
- 2 [countable] the supporting structure of a piece of furniture, a building, a vehicle, etc. that gives it its shape the frame of an aircraft/a car/a bicycle The bed frame is made of pine. Wordfinderpaintingart, background, canvas, exhibition, foreground, frame, fresco, painting, portrait, watercolour see also climbing frame See related entries: Construction, Structures of glasses
- 3[countable, usually plural] a structure of plastic or metal that holds the lenses in a pair of glasses gold-rimmed frames person/animal’s body
- 4[countable, usually singular] the form or structure of a person or animal’s body to have a small/slender/large frame The bed was shorter than his six-foot frame. Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectiveathletic, big, bony, … verb + framehave prepositionwith a… frame See full entry general ideas
- 5[singular] the general ideas or structure that form the background to something In this course we hope to look at literature in the frame of its social and historical context. see also time frame of film/movie
- 6[countable] one of the single photographs that a film or video is made of See related entries: Making films of picture story
- 7[countable] a single picture in a comic strip Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivedoor, window, photo, … prepositionin a/the frame See full entry computing
- 8[countable] one of the separate areas on an Internet page that you can scroll through (= read by using the mouse to move the text up or down) in garden
- 9[countable] = cold frame in snooker/bowling
- 10[countable] a single section of play in the game of snooker, etc., or in bowling He won the first frame easily. See related entries: Pool and snooker Word OriginOld English framian ‘be useful’, of Germanic origin and related to from. The general sense in Middle English, ‘make ready for use’, probably led to senses (3 and 4) of the verb; it also gave rise to the specific meaning ‘prepare timber for use in building’, later ‘make the wooden parts (framework) of a building’, hence the noun sense ‘structure’ (late Middle English).Extra examples She has quite a small frame. a man with a lean, athletic frame pictures in gold frames a bicycle frameIdioms
- 1be taking part/not taking part in something We won our match, so we're still in the frame for the championship.
- 2to be wanted/not wanted by the police He was always in the frame for the killing.
noun jump to other results
BrE BrE//freɪm//; NAmE NAmE//freɪm//
Pool and snooker, Construction, Structures, The art world, Making films, Art equipment
Check pronunciation: frame
