[f. FRAME sb. + WORK sb.]
1. 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 framework, as any January could freeze together.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 132. Laying a Block, or some other piece of Timber, 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, and which had been covered and re-covered again after that, and which, like a faithful old servant, wouldn’t desert the family upon any account, no matter how much it might be laughed at and sat upon.
1885. F. Temple, Relat. Relig. & Sc., vi. 164. Why, for instance, should the vertebrate animals be formed on a common plan, the parts of the framework being varied from species to species, but the framework as a whole always exhibiting the same fundamental type?
b. transf. and fig.
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,—for then a blow, on whatever spot it may fall, is sustained with the united strength of the whole.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., i. (1858), 67. Even that at ’Ayoun Mousa is not amongst those grand frameworks, such as at Marathon and elsewhere 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.
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 sb. 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 heat applied by them.
3. Comb., as framework-knitted, -knitter.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5484/4. John Hathoway … Framework-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.
