Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use refrain in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Refrain means to hold back, to restrain (someone or something). Example: “She's gotta do that song, she outright smokes when she hits the refrain!”

Examples of refrain by meaning

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

  • It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion.1949, George Orwell, chapter 1, in Nineteen Eighty-Four

More sentences with refrain

  • She's gotta do that song, she outright smokes when she hits the refrain!From the entry smoke
  • Both Jews and Muslims refrain from eating pork.From the entry jew
  • I advise that you refrain from using that kind of language at home, lest your mother scold you.From the entry scold
  • Kindly refrain from walking on the grass.From the entry kindly
  • We could see three different scalpers moving through the crowd outside the arena, each muttering the characteristic refrain: “Need any tickets?”From the entry scalper
  • There are numerous reasons to refrain.From the entry numerous
  • The reasons to refrain are numerous.From the entry numerous
  • O Death! O Death! Won't you spare me over till another year? - part of the refrain from the American folk song "A Conversation with Death".From the entry o
  • Their refrain: "Talk yuh talk, I wid you all the way." They represent a unique vociferous brand.2015 May 2, “Editorial: ‘Yardfowl’ here to stay”, in The Daily Nation, Bridgetown, Barbados: Nation Pub. Co., →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry yardfowl
  • Could I read just what is the refrain here in English?2006 October 7, Jacki Lyden, “Italian Pop Star Takes on U.S. Music Market”, in NPR All Things Considered. From the entry falsehood
  • It's likely not a good idea, and refraining from telling it would be a wiser choice.2005, CDA Journal of the California Dental Association. From the entry go over as well as a lead balloon
  • I'd suggest rather than defending your question, you refrain from asking it.2002 September 26, Jess Olson, “Kol Sasson”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet). From the entry derech eretz
  • It does not insist on «ethnic-proportional representation» and refrains from explicit antisemitism.1998, Victor A[lexandrovich] Shnirelman, “Is there room for the Jews in a Russian Pagan State?”, in Russian Neo-pagan Myths and…. From the entry Rossiian
  • Wherefore I refrain from recording the truth with which I bepepper my letters and our passionate conversations.1995, Frances Gregg, “Mystic Leeway”, in Ben Jones, editor, Women's Experience Series, volume 6, Carleton University Press, →ISBN, page 170. From the entry bepepper
  • Our guide surprised us by refraining from exploiting it for propaganda purposes.1977, Daniel Romualdez, China: A Personal Encounter with the People's Republic, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC…. From the entry Su-chou
  • With his stock rising fast in the party, the governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside if Mr.2022 January 17, Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman, “Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise Between Trump and a Former Acolyte.”, in The New…. From the entry stock
  • Their politics venerates youth (a common refrain declares a ‘war on the baby boomers’) and blames past generations for ecological crises.2022, Sam Moore and Alex Roberts, “Online far-right ecologism and far-right movements”, in The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the…. From the entry identitarian
  • I wanted to scratch it, but refrained.2021, Alexander Lobrano, My Place at the Table: A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris, Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page…. From the entry hive
  • And, there is a time to refrain from Tindering.2021 August 17, Merissa Nathan Gerson, Forget Prayers, Bring Cake: A Single Woman's Guide to Grieving, Mandala Publishing, →ISBN, page 64. From the entry tinder
  • Like lichens and mycorrhizal relationships, mycoheterotrophy is an evolutionary refrain, and has arisen independently in at least forty-six separate plant lineages.2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 173. From the entry mycoheterotrophy
  • The why-can’t-every-teacher-be-more-like-this refrain has long been popular.2020 February 10, Valerie Strauss, “How the media image of the ‘great’ teacher hurts the real-life good teacher”, in The Washington Post…. From the entry glitchlessly
  • Tariq wants to be tactful and refrains from his natural impulse to throat his pain and curse her loudly in French.2017, Alexis Debary, Arab Nights: Post 9/11 Thriller set in Tunisia, →ISBN. From the entry throat
  • For example, the tendency of birds to refrain from mating may prevent the group from exhausting its food supply.2017 July 12, Wilhelmina A. Leigh, Sketching Theoretical Biology: Toward a Theoretical Biology, Volume 2, volume 2, Routledge, →ISBN, →LCCN. From the entry fortuitously
  • He’d for the most part refrained from any dramatic concurrences or dissents—as though keeping his powder dry for Burwell v.2014 July 1, Noah Feldman, “Alito's Day in Court”, in BloombergView, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2014. From the entry keep one's powder dry
  • The initials for Blue Falcon, "BF", were originally the first letters of a term I'll refrain from printing here.2013, Jeff Rose, Soldier of Finance: Take Charge of Your Money and Invest in Your Future, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, →ISBN, page 26. From the entry blue falcon
  • “Donner kebab,” Paul said as if it was a refrain.2009, John Morgan, Giddyblue, Chipmunkapublishing ltd, →ISBN, page 143. From the entry skiff
  • While Washington should flood the zone with research funding, it should refrain from trying to pick a winner.2008 April 17, Bryan Walsh, “How to Win the War on Global Warming”, in TIME, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2019, retrieved 03 Sep…. From the entry flood the zone
  • "Doesn't she look nice?" was the refrain of the day, wherever we went, wherever the shiny ducktails would bob no-nonsensely past.2006, Jean Godfrey-June, Free Gift with Purchase: My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup. From the entry no-nonsensely
  • King stopped briefly after each refrain of “Let freedom ring,” building intensity and creating the musical effect of a crescendo.1999, David Zarefsky, “Presenting the Speech”, in Robert Alan Brookey, Annotated Instructor’s Manual for David Zarefsky’s Public Speaking…. From the entry midsentence
  • Quite certainly you command me to refrain from concupiscence of the flesh and concupiscence of the eyes and worldy pride.1997, St. Augustine, The Confessions, X, 30, 41. translated by Maria Boulding. From the entry concupiscence
  • Request that he refrain from posting anything like it again.1997, Alex J. Packer, Pamela Espeland, How Rude!. From the entry flamer
  • Sephardim and the Lubavitch rite vocalize the second word of the refrain with a shuruk and thus it reads vehu.1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 192. From the entry shuruk
  • In the Polish rite the refrain only is said, while the Western German and Minhag of Posen recite the entire poem.1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 300. From the entry minhag
  • "Bitter Sweet" is the best song on the album with its catchy "Let's go to Paradise, Jack" refrain.1988 December 18, Christopher Wittke, “Why I Loved Marc Almond From The Minute I First Read About Him”, in Gay Community News, volume 16…. From the entry clubland
  • He recommended that the patient refrain completely from eating heaty foods and spices like mustard, vinegar, meat, and salted fish.1976, Charles M. Leslie, Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study, page 208. From the entry heaty
  • Researchers should stick to their knitting, finding cancer cures and discovering new shades of lipstick, and refrain from debunking history.1975 Nov. 21, "Puritans Denied Drumstick" (editorial), Spokane Daily Chronicle, p. 4 (retrieved 1 Oct 2013). From the entry stick to one's knitting
  • It digs its pits to a shauchling refrain.1973, Edwin Morgan, From Glasgow to Saturn, page 96. From the entry shauchling
  • We think smoking is bad for health so the action we would expect is that we would refrain from smoking.1972 summer, Arthur Cody, “Weakness of the Will”, in Synergist: A Publication of the Office of Academic Affairs, volume 5, number 2…. From the entry acrasia
  • “And once in possession of them what honorable-minded Christmas guest could possibly refrain from contributing them to the cause?1921, The Ladies Home Journal, page 5. From the entry possession

Meaning of refrain

  1. verb To hold back, to restrain (someone or something).
  2. verb To show restraint; to hold oneself back.
  3. verb To repress (a desire, emotion etc.); to check or curb.

Full definition of refrain

Questions about refrain in a sentence

How do you use refrain in a sentence?
Refrain is used as a verb and noun. For example: “She's gotta do that song, she outright smokes when she hits the refrain!”
What is a short sentence with refrain?
“The reasons to refrain are numerous.”
What does refrain mean?
Refrain means to hold back, to restrain (someone or something).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: refrain (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use refrain in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/refrain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.