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frame of mind

A person's outlook or mood. I'm always in a much better frame of mind if I have a chance to unwind after work.

be in the frame

To be a likely recipient of something, such as a job or an award. I'm pretty sure I'm in the frame for Connie's position once she retires. My daughter is a great student, so she's in the frame for many academic awards at graduation.

See also: frame

in the frame

1. Very likely to be chosen; at the forefront of all choices. After ten years of dutiful service, she's finally in the frame to move into an upper management position.

2. Suspected of having committed some crime or wrongdoing. Two weeks after the gruesome murder that shocked the small town, police still have no suspects in the frame.

See also: frame

frame something in something

1. Lit. to place a frame of something around something. Let us frame the photograph in a wood frame rather than a metal one. Alice chose to frame the painting in a simple, unmatted frame.

2. Fig. to express something in a particular way. He framed his comments in very simple language. I hope you frame your remarks more clearly next time.

See also: frame

frame something out

to build the basic wood structure of a building, such as a house. The carpenters, working fast, framed the whole house out in a day. They framed out the house.

one's frame of mind

Fig. one's mood or mental state. My frame of mind is sort of low at the moment. I've had a very bad day.

See also: frame, mind, of

frame of mind

Mental or emotional attitude or mood, as in You have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy hiking in the rain. This idiom was first recorded in 1665.

See also: frame, mind, of

frame of mind

Someone's frame of mind is the mood they are in. In the morning he woke in a more optimistic frame of mind. He was just not in the right frame of mind to deal with this young man.

See also: frame, mind, of

in the frame

BRITISH

COMMON

1. If you are in the frame for a job or a successful activity, you are very likely to be chosen for it. Steve has done well. He's back in the frame and I will have a good look at him in training this week. Note: You can talk about someone being the name in the frame when they are very likely to be chosen for a job or a successful activity. Speculation about potential replacements is already rife, with Sir David Scholey and Lord Lawson among the names in the frame.

2. If someone is in the frame for a crime or a bad action, people think that they are responsible for it. The fact is, there's only ever been one guy in the frame for this killing, and that's the husband. Note: The `frame' referred to here is probably one of the frames, or images, in a reel of film.

See also: frame

be in (or out of) the frame

1 be (or not be) eligible or the centre of attention. 2 under suspicion or wanted (or not) by the police.

See also: frame

be in/out of the ˈframe

be taking part/not taking part in something: We won our match last week, so we’re still in the frame for the championship.

a frame of ˈmind

a particular way of thinking, mood, etc: You should ask her for permission when she’s in a better frame of mind. ♢ I wonder what frame of mind he was in when he wrote the letter.

See also: frame, mind, of

frame

1. tv. to cause an innocent person to be blamed for a crime; to contrive evidence so that someone appears to be guilty. (Originally underworld.) Jimmy tried to frame his sister for painting the cat yellow.

2. and frame-up and frameup n. a scheme where an innocent person is made to take the blame for something; incrimination caused by contrived evidence. (Underworld.) The frame-up would have worked if it weren’t for one little thing.

frame-up

verb

See frame

References in classic literature ?

Sacharissa rounded up her rearguard, which dropped headlong off the frame, and joined the Princess's detachment thrusting toward the Gate.

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Forthwith there issued from an inner apartment a man of low stature, but bulky frame, with shaggy hair hanging about his visage, which was grimed with the vapors of the furnace.

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Another girl would have kept her baby out of sight, but Tony, of course, must have its picture on exhibition at the town photographer's, in a great gilt frame.

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They were to frame a NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, adequate to the EXIGENCIES OF GOVERNMENT, and OF THE UNION; and to reduce the articles of Confederation into such form as to accomplish these purposes.

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But instead of the door frame his head and shoulders came in contact with the warm flesh of a pair of living legs.

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In the middle stood a little frame containing relics; at the corners were two little orange-trees, and all along the edge were silver candlesticks, porcelain vases containing sun-flowers, lilies, peonies, and tufts of hydrangeas.

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But this would be most evident, if any one could see such a government really established: for it would be impossible to frame such a city without dividing and separating it into its distinct parts, as public tables, wards, and tribes; so that here the laws will do nothing more than forbid the military to engage in agriculture, which is what the Lacedaemonians are at present endeavouring to do.

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The window frame which prevented anyone from sitting on the outer sill was being forced out by two footmen, who were evidently flurried and intimidated by the directions and shouts of the gentlemen around.

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he thought, recalling the service of the day before and the holy icon with its black face and gilt frame, and the tapers which he sold to be set before that icon and which were almost immediately brought back to him scarcely burnt at all, and which he put away in the store-chest.

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If he could so frame words that she could see what he then saw

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In her present altered frame of mind, she was inclined to think that Sir Jervis might be the more interesting correspondent of the two.

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In the frame of a gruesome doorway she stood for a moment cursing them.

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While in that frame of mind he leaned thoughtlessly against a druggist's show-window, wherein were one hundred and fifty kinds of assorted snakes.

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Looking back at events in this frame of mind, the very sight of the letter sickened and horrified me.

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Captain Jim hung his fiddle up in its place, beside a large frame enclosing several banknotes.