Word.ws English Dictionary

refraining

refraining is the present participle and gerund of refrain.

Meaning of refrain

Verb

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

  1. (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
  2. (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
  3. (archaic, transitive) To repress (a desire, emotion etc.); to check or curb.
    Synonyms:
    hold
  4. (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
  5. (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

See all 7 meanings of refrain

Noun

refraining (plural refrainings)

  1. The act of one who refrains from doing something.
    • Their refrainings from evil are members of at least one active causal chain[…]2005, Daniel J. Hill, Divinity and Maximal Greatness, page 220

Forms of refraining

pluralrefrainings

Questions about refraining

What does refraining mean?
Refraining means the act of one who refrains from doing something.
What is refraining the present participle and gerund of?
Refraining is the present participle and gerund of refrain.
What part of speech is refraining?
Refraining is a noun.
What is the plural of refraining?
The plural of refraining is refrainings.

Words near refraining in the dictionary

  1. refrained
  2. refrainer
  3. refrainers
  4. refrainest
  5. refraineth
  6. refraining
  7. refrainings
  8. refrainment
  9. refrainments
  10. refrains
  11. reframe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: refraining (page history and authors); refrain (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.

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