refrain

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   resist doing something

   I refrained from hitting back.

2. 2
   verb

   To hold back, to restrain (someone or something).

   Refrain thy foot from their path.

3. 3
   verb

   To show restraint; to hold oneself back.

   And nowe I saye unto you: refrayne youreselves from these men, and let them alone [...].

4. 4
   verb

   To stop oneself from some action or interference; to abstain; to eschew

   Refrain from these men, and let them alone.

5. 5
   verb

   To abstain from (food or drink).

   Who, requiring a remedy for his gout, received no other counsel than to refrain cold drink.

6. 6
   noun

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

   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.

7. 7
   noun

   the part of a song where a soloist is joined by a group of singers

8. 8
   verb

   choose not to consume

Etymology

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.