enframe

[ en-freym ]

verb (used with object)

1. to provide with a frame or border:

   The workmen enframed the window with mahogany.

2. to enclose:

   Three small bedrooms enframe the central area.

3. to fix or shape:

   Our surroundings give us a set of relationships that enframe our thoughts.

Word History and Origins

Origin of enframe¹

First recorded in 1840–45; en- ¹( def ) frame ( def ) (verb)

Example Sentences

After having expressed the ideal of his nation with such perfection, the Arab calligrapher bent beneath his yoke—almost religious—everything that was destined to support or enframe it: architecture and other systems of embellishment, forcing them to yield to the sway of his shaping skill.

From Project Gutenberg

Enframe, en-frām′, v.t. to put in a frame.

From Project Gutenberg

The tremendous organs above are a mass of gilding and restless Baroque ornamentation, while their rear is covered by multicolored strips of stone which would have looked vulgar and gaudy around a Punch and Judy show and here enframe the four Evangelists.

From Project Gutenberg

When the sculptor set himself to carve the slabs that enframe a door or those that protect the lower parts of a wall, he sought to render what he saw or imagined as precisely and definitely as possible.

From Project Gutenberg

Some day, perhaps, the exact significance of this emblem may be explained, we are content to point out the variety and happy arrangement of the sinuous lines which surround and enframe the richly decorated pilaster that acts as its stem.

From Project Gutenberg