frank

Formsfranker, frankest

Pluralfranks

Formsfranks, franking, franked

1. 1
   honestadjective

   Honest and open, often in a slightly blunt way, without holding back or disguising anything.

   Let me be frank with you: the budget will not cover a second hire.

   The memoir offers a frank account of her years of addiction and recovery.

   UsageOften be frank with someone. To be frank introduces a direct opinion: To be frank, I disagree.

   Similarunreserved

   Oppositeevasive, guarded, reticent, secretive

2. 2
   sausagenouncountable

   A hot dog or sausage.

   Dinner on the last night of the camping trip was franks and beans from a dented pot.

   The stand sells a jumbo frank on a toasted bun for three dollars.

   UsageOften plural, especially in franks and beans.

   Similarfrankfurter

   Note

   This is frankfurter cut short, a word of its own with a distant family connection to the candid adjective and the postal frank. It lives mostly in the plural and in pairs: franks and beans is the fixed combination, a farewell meal in Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) and a byword beside bacon and eggs and death and taxes in Superman: The Movie (1978). Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

   • The sausage noun frank is a shortening of frankfurter. en.wiktionary.org
   • The senses have a distant etymological connection: frankfurter comes from Frankfurt, whose name means “ford of the Franks”; the adjective and postal sense also trace back to the Franks. en.wiktionary.org
   • Frankfurter derives from the name Frankfurt am Main. en.wiktionary.org
   • On the Road is by Jack Kerouac and was first published in 1957. en.wikipedia.org
   • Franks and beans form a farewell meal in On the Road. en.wiktionary.org
   • Superman: The Movie was released in 1978. en.wikipedia.org
   • In the film, Perry White includes franks and beans alongside bacon and eggs and death and taxes. en.wikiquote.org
3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To mark a letter or package to show that postage has been paid or is not needed, so it can be sent without a stamp.

   Clerks frank the outgoing letters in the mailroom each afternoon.

   The new machine franked a whole sack of envelopes before lunch.

   Note

   Franking could be a favor done for someone else. In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811), a character jokes about the letters a new M.P. will receive, then complains that he will never frank for me. The construction is worth knowing: frank for someone, with no letter named, means using your own franking on their mail. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Franking could be done for another person's mail. hampshirearchivestrust.co.uk
   • Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility, first published in 1811. janeaustens.house
   • Charlotte Palmer jokes about letters addressed to her husband as an anticipated M.P. and reports his refusal to frank for her; the quoted wording is exact. gutenberg.org
   • The passage uses frank for someone without an expressed object, referring to franking that person's mail. gutenberg.org
4. 4
   postage marknouncountable

   An official mark or signature on a letter or package showing that postage has been paid or that it may be sent free of charge.

   Most of the mail on her desk carried a company frank rather than a stamp.

   The sorting clerk glanced at the frank in the corner and tossed the letter onto the pile.

5. 5
   obvious (medical)adjective

   Clinically obvious and unmistakable, so plain that it needs no further proof.

   Without treatment, the chest infection progressed to frank pneumonia within a week.

   The surgeon noted frank pus draining from the incision.

   UsageSits before its noun: frank pus, frank blood, progression to frank disease. It says nothing about honesty.

   Similarovert, obvious, manifest, unmistakable

   Oppositeoccult, subclinical

   Note

   Clinical writing uses it for a condition that has fully arrived, as opposed to one that is early, borderline or only suspected. Frank diabetes is the disease itself, the stage pre-diabetes can progress to, and progression to frank disease is the natural phrasing. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Prediabetes can progress to diabetes, described in clinical communication as frank diabetes. podcasts.hopkinsmedicine.org
6. 6
   free postagenoununcountable

   The privilege of sending mail free of postage, held by certain officials such as members of a legislature.

   Critics say lawmakers abuse the frank by mailing glossy newsletters at public expense.

   Members of Congress can send official mail under the frank.

   UsageUsually the frank: mail sent under the frank.

   Note

   The root meaning of free went to work in the mail, as a privilege rather than a price. William Cowper, writing to William Unwin in 1780, says he has said so much that without a frank he would have to burn his letter and begin again. A frank decided how much a letter could say.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To send something by public conveyance, such as the mail, free of expense.

   The steamship line promised to frank the missionaries' books and medicine to the island stations.

   Because lawmakers may frank official mail, constituents receive their newsletters with a printed signature where the stamp would normally be.

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