[f. FRANK v.2]
1. The superscribed signature of a person, e.g., a member of Parliament, entitled to send letters post free.
1713. ‘Philopatrius,’ Refl. Sacheverell’s Thanksgiving-Day, 4. The Famine of News has been so general and uninterrupted, that I could find nothing to write to you that would be thought worth the Postage; and you know the Franks are now become a Monopoly to one Side.
1776. Twiss, Tour in Ireland, 37. The third custom is that of forging franks, which is pretty universal; the ladies in particular use this privilege: they endeavour to excuse themselves, some by saying that the members of parliament have given them leave to use their names.
1812. Scott, Lett. to Crabbe, in Lockhart, Life, xxv. I must now send this scrawl into town to get a frank, for, God knows, it is not worthy of postage.
1852. Raine, Mem. Surtees, 92, note. The want of a frank for a letter, for which he knew he could not pay the postage without hurting the feelings of the person whom it was addressed, and to whom he further knew that even the postage of a letter was a consideration, frequently afforded him an errand, and he was always welcome.
Comb.
1859. Sala, Gas-light & D., v. 62. There were regular frank-hunters—men who could nose a Member who had not yet given all his franks away, with a scent as keen as ever Cuban bloodhound had for negro flesh.
2. A letter or envelope bearing such a superscription.
1755. Wesley, Wks. (1872), XII. 182. Mr. Perronet sends them [proof sheets] down to me in franks; then I correct and send them back to him.
1781. Cowper, Wks. (1837), XV. 63. I did it to save a frank, and as the affair has turned out, that end was very well answered.
1806. Scott, Fam. Lett., 16 Dec. (1894), I. ii. 62. I cannot employ time or a frank better than by inquiring whether you have got rid of the unlucky typhus, which I hear from the valiant knight aforesaid has laid its claws upon you.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xvi. To send the manuscript in a frank to the local paper.
1878. Symonds, Shelley, 26. Shelley frequently carried pistols with him upon these occasions, and would stop to fix his father’s franks upon convenient trees and shoot at them.
3. fig. Mark of approval; ‘stamp.’ rare.
1876. World, V. No. 108. 11. Impecuniosity has had the frank of Fashion.
