Verb

(defin)

To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.

* Sir (Isaac Newton)

Ringsvery distinct and well defined .

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Lee S. Langston

, title= The Adaptable Gas Turbine , passage=Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo'', meaning ''vortex , and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.}}

(obsolete) To settle, decide (an argument etc.).

* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , IV.3:

These warlike Champions, all in armour shine, / Assembled were in field the chalenge to define .

To express the essential nature of something.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=

, volume=101, issue=3, page=178, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Crinkly Curves , passage=Cantor defined a one-to-one correspondence between the points of the square and the points of the line segment. Every point in the square was associated with a single point in the segment; every point in the segment was matched with a unique point in the square.}}

To state the meaning of a word, phrase, sign, or symbol.

To describe, explain, or make definite and clear.

To demark sharply the outlines or limits of an area or concept.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=(Jan Sapp)

, volume=100, issue=2, page=164, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Race Finished , passage=Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?}}

(mathematics) To establish the referent of a term or notation.

Verb

(fram)

(obsolete) To strengthen; refresh; support.

At last, with creeping crooked pace forth came / An old, old man, with beard as white as snow, / That on a staffe his feeble steps did frame . ? Spenser.

(obsolete) To execute; perform.

The silken tackle / Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands / That yarely frame the office. ? Shakespeare.

(obsolete) To cause; to bring about; to produce.

* Shakespeare

Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds.

(obsolete) To profit; avail.

(obsolete) To fit; accord.

When thou hast turned them all ways, and done thy best to hew them and to make them frame , thou must be fain to cast them out. ? Tyndale.

(obsolete) To succeed in doing or trying to do something; manage.

To fit, as for a specific end or purpose; make suitable or comfortable; adapt; adjust.

* John Lyly

I will hereafter frame myself to be coy.

* Shakespeare

frame my face to all occasions

* Landor

We may in some measure frame our minds for the reception of happiness.

* I. Taylor

The human mind is framed to be influenced.

To construct by fitting or uniting together various parts; fabricate by union of constituent parts.

To bring or put into form or order; adjust the parts or elements of; compose; contrive; plan; devise.

* Sir Philip Sidney

He began to frame the loveliest countenance he could.

* I. Watts

How many excellent reasonings are framed in the mind of a man of wisdom and study in a length of years.

Of a constructed object such as a building, to put together the structural elements.

Once we finish framing the house, we'll hang tin on the roof.

Of a picture such as a painting or photograph, to place inside a decorative border.

To position visually within a fixed boundary.

The director frames the fishing scene very well.

To construct in words so as to establish a context for understanding or interpretation.

How would you frame your accomplishments?

The way the opposition has framed the argument makes it hard for us to win.

(criminology) Conspire to incriminate falsely a presumably innocent person.

The gun had obviously been placed in her car in an effort to frame her.

(intransitive, dialectal, mining) To wash ore with the aid of a frame.

(dialectal) To move.

An oath, and a threat to set Throttler on me if I did not frame off, rewarded my perseverance. ? E. Brontë.

(obsolete) To proceed; to go.

* Shakespeare

The beauty of this sinful dame / Made many princes thither frame .