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refrain - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English refreynen, from Anglo-Norman refraindre, Middle French refreindre (from Latin refringere), and Anglo-Norman refrener, Middle French refrener (from Latin refrenare).

refrain (third-person singular simple present refrains, present participle refraining, simple past and past participle refrained)

  1. (transitive, archaic) To hold back, to restrain (someone or something). [from 14th c.]

    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 14:

      The presence even for a moment among a party of debauchees of a woman endued with every quality of modesty and not less severe than beautiful refrained the humorous sallies even of the most licentious but her departure was the signal for an outbreak of ribaldry.

  2. (reflexive, archaic) To show restraint; to hold oneself back. [from 14th c.]

    • 1899, Sabine Baring-Gould, A Book of the West, Volume 1 Chapter 18:

      As I went down the river, all dissatisfaction at my lot passed away, and by the time Dartmouth came in view I could no longer refrain myself, but threw my cap into the air, and barely caught it from falling overboard as I shouted, "Hurrah for merry England! […] "

  3. (transitive, now rare) To repress (a desire, emotion etc.); to check or curb. [from 14th c.]
  4. (intransitive, with preposition "from") To stop oneself from some action or interference; to abstain; to eschew [from 15th c.]
    • July 5, 1731, Jonathan Swift, letter to Vanessa
      If you knew how I struggle for a little health, what uneasiness I am at in riding and walking, and refraining from every thing agreeable to my taste
  5. (transitive, rare, regional) To abstain from (food or drink). [from 16th c.]

to abstain (from) — see also abstain

to keep oneself from action

From French refrain, from the Old French verb refraindre (“to break off, repeat”), from Latin re- (“back, again”) + frangō (“break”); compare Occitan refranhs (“a refrain”), refranher (“to repeat”). See refract and the verb refrain.

refrain (plural refrains)

  1. The chorus or burden of a song repeated at the end of each verse or stanza.

    • 1949, George Orwell, chapter 1, in Nineteen Eighty-Four:

      For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise.

  2. (by extension) A much repeated comment, complaint, or saying.
    Synonym: old saw

burden of song

Alteration of Old French refrait, past participle of the verb refraindre (based on the verb's infinitive), itself from Vulgar Latin *refrangere, from Latin refringere.

refrain m (plural refrains)

  1. refrain, chorus

Borrowed from French refrain.

refrain m (invariable)

  1. refrain
    Synonym: ritornello
  • refrain in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana