[f. FRANK a.2, see sense 1 d.]
1. trans. To superscribe (a letter, etc.) with a signature, so as to ensure its being sent without charge; to send or cause to be sent free of charge. Obs. exc. Hist.
1708. Hearne, Collect., 14 June. They’l be frank’t at ye Posthouse.
1745. Advt., in Swift’s Wks., VIII. 297. It is desired their letters may be either franked, or the post paid.
1764. J. Clayton, in Darlington, Mem. of Bartram, etc. (1849), 411. My friend Mr. Franklin would be kind enough to frank a small parcel of seeds from you to him.
1804. Med. Jrnl., XII. 334. The post-masters-general have had the liberality to frank the correspondence of the Society, which amounts, weekly, to several pounds.
1818. J. Jekyll, Corr., 7 Dec. (1894), 74. Brougham has just left me; and to show you I am not the only man of letters who writes an infamous hand, I made him frank this cover.
a. 1834. Wirt, Lett. to Carr, in J. P. Kennedy, Life (1860), II. xiv. 228. This is the last letter I shall ever frank to you as Attorney-General.
1855. Ill. Lond. News, 21 July, 70/1. The stamp must be folded outside; and this will frank the paper throughout the United Kingdom for fifteen days.
1887. Spectator, 29 Oct., 1441/1. He has officially favoured men who advertised largely in his papers, and has franked masses of letters connected with those papers with the President’s stamp.
b. absol. (In quot. 1774 = to obtain franks.)
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 600. The trading Cit, whose object was to frank.
1785. Trusler, Mod. Times, III. 231. Many a day have I slipped off my coat, and franked away as for life.
c. fig. To facilitate the coming and going of (a person); to furnish with a social passport, secure entrée into society for.
1801. Spirit. Pub. Jrnls., IV. 25. A few yards of muslin, &c. and a gig on a Sunday, will frank you for the whole week.
1840. Fraser’s Mag., XXI. June, 702/2. The premier, who ought to see its patrons in prison, makes its arch-priest his protégé, and franks him through England by introducing him to the royal presence.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. ii. 98. Even some of the best established and most respectable titles have difficulty in franking themselves through all parts of the country.
1887. Stevenson, Mem. & Portraits, i. 2. English itself, which will now frank the traveller through the most of North America, through the greater South Sea Islands, in India, along much of the coast of Africa, and in the ports of China and Japan, is still to be heard, in its home country, in half a hundred varying stages of transition.
2. To pay the passage of (a person); to convey gratuitously.
1809. Scott, in Smiles, Life J. Murray (1891), I. vii. 151. I believe I shall get franked, so will have my generosity for nothing.
1851. Thackeray, Lett., 140. I suppose I could be franked through the kingdom from one grandee to another.
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., II. ii. 190. He got an opportunity of being franked to Posen, by a man who went thither in charge of several horses.
3. To secure exemption for; to exempt. Const. against, from. Cf. FRANK a.2 1.
1876. Miss Yonge, Womankind, xxix. 260. Most people being in all probability franked against all the common epidemics they have once had, except, perhaps, scarlet fever, may reasonably venture among them if any good purpose is to be fulfilled by so doing in the way of nursing or consolation.
1881. Saintsbury, in Academy, 15 Jan., 41/1. The abstract merits of the form are almost franked from criticism.
Hence Franked ppl. a., Franking vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1727. Berkeley, Lett. to Prior, 27 Feb., Wks. 1871, IV. 141. You must take care that no one packet be above a certain quantity or weight, and thereby exceed the limits of franking: in which case the frank I know will not be regarded, and the papers may miscarry.
1748. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Wortley M., 17 July. I begin to suspect my servants put the franking money in their pockets.
1758. J. Blake, Plan Mar. Syst., 9. The Pay-office shall transmit … a franked order for payment.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, II. vii. (1852), 321. Franked letters were in most instances addressed to those who could best afford to pay the expense of postage.
1869. W. M. Rossetti, Mem. Shelley, p. xxxiii. Sir Timothy wrote a capital free clear hand, as perceptible in his franking signature outside some of his son’s letters.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., xii. They had never paid postage. They were born and had always lived in the franking world.
