refrain

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To stop yourself from doing something.

   Please refrain from smoking inside the building.

2. 2
   noun

   A line or group of lines repeated after each verse of a song or poem.

   Everyone joined in singing the refrain of the famous song.

Simplified etymology

Refrain entered English in late Middle English from French refrain and remained rare before the 19th century. The French word most probably comes from the unrecorded post-classical Latin refrangere, a variant of classical Latin refringere, which was formed from Latin frangere, “to break.”

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary