frame

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A structure that gives shape or support.
• noun The structure or physique of a human or animal body.
• noun An open structure or rim for encasing, holding, or bordering.
• noun A closed, often rectangular border of drawn or printed lines.
• noun The edge, usually rectangular, delimiting the boundaries of an image.
• noun The bounded area of a visual image, as in photography or film.
• noun One of the set of still images that constitute a film or video.
• noun A single image, as in a comic strip or graphic novel, usually bounded by a rectangular line.
• noun Computers A rectangular area in which text or graphics can be shown, especially one of several rectangular areas on a web page displaying different documents simultaneously.
• noun A general structure or system.
• noun A general state or condition.
• noun A frame of reference.
• noun The presentation of events in a narrative work, especially a work of literature or film, such that characters in the narrative exist in isolation, uninfluenced by, unaware of, and unable to interact with the narrator or audience.
• noun The context in which discourse occurs.
• noun A pattern for a syntactic construction in which one of a group of words can vary.
• noun A round or period of play in some games, such as bowling and billiards.
• noun Baseball An inning.
• noun A pair of eyeglasses, excluding the lenses.
• noun Informal A frame-up.
• noun Obsolete Shape; form.
• intransitive verb To enclose in a frame.
• intransitive verb To put together the structural parts of; construct the frame of.
• intransitive verb To conceive or design.
• intransitive verb To establish the context for and terminology regarding (a subject of discussion or debate), especially so as to exclude an unwanted point of view.
• intransitive verb To put into words; formulate.
• intransitive verb To form (words) silently with the lips.
• intransitive verb To make up evidence or contrive events so as to incriminate (a person) falsely.
• intransitive verb To prearrange (a contest) so as to ensure a desired fraudulent outcome; fix.
• intransitive verb Baseball To catch (a pitch) in such a way as to make it appear to have passed through the strike zone.
• intransitive verb Archaic To go; proceed.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In ship-building, one of the ribs or transverse members which extend up on each side of the keel and support the outside planking or plating.
• noun In bee-keeping, an open four-cornered box, readily removed from the hive, in which the bees construct their combs.
• noun In printing, same as composing-stand.
• noun In bowling or tenpins, a division of the game through which a player continues at one setting of the pins. Three balls usually constitute a frame.
• noun In pool: The triangle used to spot the balls in pyramidal form at pyramid, continuous, following, and fifteen-ball pool and their offshoots.
• noun The leg or game played with such a set of balls at all except continuous pool.
• noun Profit; advantage; benefit.
• noun The act of planning or contriving; contrivance; invention.
• noun Form, constitution, or structure in general; system; order: as, the frame of government.
• noun Anything composed of parts fitted and united; fabric; structure: used especially of natural objects with reference to their physical structure or constitution.
• noun The sustaining parts of a structure fitted and joined together; framework; as, the frame of a house, bridge, ship, or printing-press. See cut on following page.