refrain

/ɹɪˈfɹeɪn/

refrain verb: to hold back, to restrain (someone or something).

Verb

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

(archaic, transitive) To hold back, to restrain (someone or something).
- Refrain thy foot from their path.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 1:15
- 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.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 14
(archaic, reflexive) To show restraint; to hold oneself back.
- And nowe I saye unto you: refrayne youreselves from these men, and let them alone [...].1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts
- 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![…]"1899, Sabine Baring-Gould, A Book of the West, Volume 1 Chapter 18
(archaic, transitive) To repress (a desire, emotion etc.); to check or curb.

Synonyms:

hold
(intransitive) To stop oneself from some action or interference; to abstain; to eschew
- Refrain from these men, and let them alone.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 5:38
- They refrained therefrom [eating flesh] some time after.1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC
(rare, regional, transitive) To abstain from (food or drink).
- Who, requiring a remedy for his gout, received no other counsel than to refrain cold drink.1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

Noun

refrain (plural refrains)

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...1949, George Orwell, chapter 1, in Nineteen Eighty-Four
(broadly) A much repeated comment, complaint, or saying.

Synonyms:

old saw

refrain meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam

refrain in Urdu

ردیف, ٹیپ کا بند, ٹیپ کا مصرع, باز آنا, برداشت کرنا, پرہیز کرنا

refrain in Telugu

to refrain, give up, omit: తక్కు takku

refrain in Malayalam

desist, abstain, hold back: പരിവർജ്ജിക്കുക, ചെയ്യാതിരിക്കുക, അകന്നു നിൽക്കുക, വിട്ടുമാറുക, ഒഴിഞ്ഞുനിൽക്കുക, വർജ്ജിക്കുക

More languagesFewer languages

refrain in Kannada: ಪಲ್ಲವಿ, ಹಿಂಜರಿತ, ಹಿಂದೆಗೆತ, ಹಿಮ್ಮೆಟ್ಟುವಿಕೆ
refrain in Punjabi: ਰਹਾਉ rahāu, ਰੁਕਣਾ rukṇā
refrain in Tagalog: pabini, pabinian
refrain in Arabic: اِمْتَنَعَ, لَازِمَة lāzima, قَرَار qarār
refrain in Malay: korus
refrain in Persian: خودداری کردن xoddâri kardan
refrain in Thai: สร้อย sɔ̂i
refrain in Vietnamese: điệp khúc

Examples of refrain in a sentence

I will [...] tell you the story of what has happened to me, if you like, but you must refrain from interruptions.1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Time Traveler Returns”, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC...
It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion.1949, George Orwell, chapter 1, in Nineteen Eighty-Four:

All 40 example sentences with refrain

Synonyms of refrain

hold
old saw

Forms of refrain

Verb
third-person singular present	refrains
present participle	refraining
past participle	refrained
past	refrained
Noun
plural	refrains

Past tense of refrain: refrained

Origin of refrain

Inherited from Middle English refreynen, from Anglo-Norman refrener, Old French refrener, from Latin refrēnāre, from re- + frēnāre, from frēnum.

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.

Words formed from refrain

Words that rhyme with refrain

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about refrain

What does refrain mean?: Refrain means to hold back, to restrain (someone or something).
What is refrain in Urdu?: Refrain in Urdu is ردیف, ٹیپ کا بند, ٹیپ کا مصرع. See Refrain meaning in Urdu.
How do you use refrain in a sentence?: I will [...] tell you the story of what has happened to me, if you like, but you must refrain from interruptions.
What part of speech is refrain?: Refrain can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce refrain?: Refrain is pronounced /ɹɪˈfɹeɪn/.
What is the past tense of refrain?: The past tense of refrain is refrained.

Words near refrain in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: refrain (page history and authors); refrain (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); refrain (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); తక్కు (Telugu) (page history and authors); refrain (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); refrain (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਰਹਾਉ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-refrain.ogg.

Cite this entry: “refrain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/refrain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.