refret
refret verb: to replace the frets on (a musical instrument).
Verb
refret (third-person singular simple present refrets, present participle refretting, simple past and past participle refretted)
- To replace the frets on (a musical instrument).
- Can you refret my guitar?
Noun
refret (plural refrets)
- A refrain.
- Our old English term refrette, ‘the foote of the dittie, a verse often interlaced, or the burden of a song,’ was probably from refrain; or from refresteler, to pipe over again. […] ‘Refrain, the refret, burthen, or downe of a ballad.’ All this discussion is rendered necessary, because Steevens...1820, Samuel Weller Singer, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Prince of Denmark, page 136
- The refret or burden of the song in ver. 6, 8, 9, 10, “Yet have ye not returned to me,”[…] alludes to Deut. iv. 29(30),1847, E.W. Hengstenberg, translated by J.E. Ryland, Dissertations on the Genuineness of the Pentateuch, volume 1, page 143
Forms of refret
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | refrets |
| present participle | refretting |
| past participle | refretted |
| past | refretted |
| Noun | |
| plural | refrets |
| alternative form | refrette |
| alternative form | refreite |
| alternative form | refrayt |
| alternative form | refraid |
| alternative form | refrayde |
| alternative form | refreyd |
Origin of refret
From re- + fret.
From Middle English refreit, from Anglo-Norman refreit (“response”), refraindre (“to sing a refrain”); also Old French refreit (“refrain”). The Oxford English Dictionary suggests influence from an unattested Late Latin form, refrangere; compare Latin refractus (past participle). See refrain (noun), refract.
Questions about refret
- What does refret mean?
- Refret means to replace the frets on (a musical instrument).
- What part of speech is refret?
- Refret can be a verb or a noun.
- What is the past tense of refret?
- The past tense of refret is refretted.
Words near refret in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: refret (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: “refret.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/refret. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.