Meaning & use
framing someone
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Meanings
phraseidiom
The act of deliberately making an innocent person appear guilty of a crime or wrongdoing.
Grammar: Comes from the verb 'frame someone'; the -ing form works as a noun phrase: Framing someone is a serious offense.
Patterns
- framing someone for a crime
- accused of framing someone
- the framing of someone
The police were accused of framing someone for a murder he didn't commit.
Framing someone is a crime in itself, even if the person is later cleared.
She claimed the evidence had been planted as part of framing someone.
phraseidiominformal
The act of deliberately giving false information about a person to damage their reputation or cause them trouble.
Grammar: Often used with 'for' to show what the person is falsely blamed for: framing someone for theft.
Patterns
- framing someone for something
- framing someone as something
He was angry about being framed for the missing money.
The article was accused of framing someone as the villain without proof.
Common combinations
- framing someone for a crime
- He was arrested for framing someone for a crime they didn't commit.
- accused of framing someone
- The officer was accused of framing someone to close the case quickly.
- set someone up
- They tried to set him up by hiding drugs in his car.
- false accusation
- Framing someone often involves a false accusation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- set up
- More informal and often used in everyday speech; 'framing someone' is more specific to making them look guilty.
- entrap
- Usually used for tricking someone into committing a crime, while 'framing someone' means making them look guilty of a crime they didn't do.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: framing someone or blaming someone?
framing someone vs blaming someone
Blaming means saying someone is responsible for something, which may be true; framing means making them look guilty when they are not.
Practice
What does 'framing someone' mean?
Choose one answer.
Framing someone means deliberately making them appear guilty of something they did not do. Option 0 is a literal use of 'frame' (to put in a frame), and option 2 is simply blaming, which does not necessarily involve lying.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “framing someone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.