ˈframework
[f. frame n. + work n.]
1. a. A structure composed of parts framed together, esp. one designed for inclosing or supporting anything; a frame or skeleton.
| 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 64 What a fine conformity would it starch us all into? doubtless a stanch and solid peece of frame-work, as any January could freeze together. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 132 Laying a Block..under the corner of the Frame-work to bear it hollow off the Foundation. 1822 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 192 Let ribs of beef this frame-work line. 1874 Burnand My Time iii. 28 The old arm-chair, whose framework had been made any number of years ago. 1885 F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sc. vi. 164 The framework [of vertebrate animals] as a whole always exhibiting the same fundamental type. |
b. transf. and fig. framework of reference, † axes = frame of reference (now chiefly in sense (ii)).
| 1816 J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) 10 That the frame-work of a nation may be strong, each of its divisions must be let closely into others. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. i. (1858) 67 Those grand frameworks, such as at Marathon and else⁓where correspond to the event they have encompassed. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxii. 7 The outward framework of law and government still keeps its ancient shape. 1910 E. T. Whittaker Hist. Theories Aether & Electr. xii. 446 The physicist..finds it convenient to construct a framework of axes in space and time for the purposes of fitting his experiences into an orderly arrangement. 1914 L. Silberstein Theory of Relativity i. 4 We are compelled to give up our earth as a system of reference and replace it..by a framework of axes pointing from an initial point fixed in the sun. Ibid. 3 The earth loses its privilege as a framework of reference. 1931 Amer. Jrnl. Orthopsychiatry Oct. 493 Clearly the framework of reference within which a department of life is thought partly determines the basic attitude. 1959 Listener 14 May 857/1 The idea of a Luddite phase is clearly important in his framework of reference. |
2. (Written as two words or with a hyphen.) Work done in or with a frame. a. Knitting or weaving done on a ‘stocking-frame’; cf. frame n. 13 b, and see 3 below. b. (See quot.)
| 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, Frame Work, this work, also called Travail au Métier, is formed with wools and silk upon a flat solid wooden Frame cut to the size required. |
c. Gardening. (See quot.)
| 1819 Rees Cycl., Frame-work, that sort of forcing and raising vegetable productions at an early period, which is performed by means of frames and artificial heart applied by them. |
3. Comb., as framework-knitted, framework-knitter.
| 1716 Lond. Gaz. No. 5484/4 John Hathoway..Frame⁓work knitter. 1788 Act 28 Geo. III, c. 55 An Act for the..Punishment of Persons destroying..Framework knitted Pieces, Stockings, and other Articles. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Frame-work Knitter, an operative in the hosiery trade, who weaves the worsted or cotton thread up into a knitted fabric. |