FRANKLIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

• FRANKLIN (noun)
  The noun FRANKLIN has 3 senses:

1. United States historian noted for studies of Black American history (born in 1915)

2. printer whose success as an author led him to take up politics; he helped draw up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; he played a major role in the American Revolution and negotiated French support for the colonists; as a scientist he is remembered particularly for his research in electricity (1706-1790)

3. a landowner (14th and 15th centuries) who was free but not of noble birth

  Familiarity information: FRANKLIN used as a noun is uncommon.

• FRANKLIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

United States historian noted for studies of Black American history (born in 1915)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Franklin; John Hope Franklin

Instance hypernyms:

historian; historiographer (a person who is an authority on history and who studies it and writes about it)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Printer whose success as an author led him to take up politics; he helped draw up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; he played a major role in the American Revolution and negotiated French support for the colonists; as a scientist he is remembered particularly for his research in electricity (1706-1790)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Benjamin Franklin; Franklin

Instance hypernyms:

American Revolutionary leader (a nationalist leader in the American Revolution and in the creation of the United States)

pressman; printer (someone whose occupation is printing)

scientist (a person with advanced knowledge of one or more sciences)

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A landowner (14th and 15th centuries) who was free but not of noble birth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("franklin" is a kind of...):

landholder; landowner; property owner (a holder or proprietor of land)

Domain region:

England (a division of the United Kingdom)

 Context examples 

A franklin of Hampshire would think shame to have such litter upon his soil.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Franklin used to fly a kite.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Lindsey and Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, a geophysicist at Rice University in Houston, led the experiment with the assistance of Craig Dawe of MBARI, which owns the fiber-optic cable.

(Underwater telecom cables make superb seismic network, National Science Foundation)

When we removed Piezo1 from the surface of aged brain stem cells, we were able to trick the cells into perceiving a soft surrounding environment, even when they were growing on the stiff material, explained Professor Robin Franklin, who co-led the research with Dr Chalut.

(Cambridge scientists reverse ageing process in rat brain stem cells, University of Cambridge)

One noontide I was by Franklin Swinton's gate, when up he rides with a yeoman pricker at his heels.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As to John, he took unto himself a village maid, and settled in Lyndhurst, where his five thousand crowns made him the richest franklin for many miles around.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I have heard him on the cog with a voice like the wave upon the shore. I pray you, friend, to give us 'The Bells of Milton,' or, if you will, 'The Franklin's Maid.'”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Twenty years ago, he said, your father, the Franklin of Minstead, died, leaving to the Abbey three hides of rich land in the hundred of Malwood, and leaving to us also his infant son on condition that we should rear him until he came to man's estate.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had given my foreword and sacred promise to your father, Edric the Franklin, that at the age of twenty you should be sent out into the world to see for yourself how you liked the savor of it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)