Adjacent Words

Refraining definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

REFRA'INING, ppr. Holding back; forbearing.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Refrain Re*frain" (r?*fr?n"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Refrained (-fr?nd"); p. pr. & vb/ n. Refraining.] [OE. refreinen, OF. refrener, F. refr?ner, fr. L. refrenare; influenced by OF. refraindre to restrain, moderate, fr. LL. refrangere, for L. refringere to break up, break (see Refract). L. refrenare is fr. pref. re- back + frenum bridle; cf. Skr. dh? to hold.] 1. To hold back; to restrain; to keep within prescribed bounds; to curb; to govern. His reson refraineth not his foul delight or talent. --Chaucer. Refrain thy foot from their path. --Prov. i. 15. 2. To abstain from [Obs.] Who, requiring a remedy for his gout, received no other counsel than to refrain cold drink. --Sir T. Browne.

Moby Thesaurus

Encratism, Friday, Lenten fare, Pythagoreanism, Pythagorism, Rechabitism, Shakerism, Spartan fare, Stoicism, abstainment, abstemiousness, abstention, abstinence, asceticism, avoidance, avoiding reaction, banyan day, celibacy, chastity, circumvention, continence, defense mechanism, dodge, duck, elusion, elusiveness, equivocation, escape, eschewal, evasion, evasive action, evasiveness, fast, fish day, forbearance, forestalling, forestallment, fruitarianism, getting around, gymnosophy, jink, nephalism, neutrality, nonintervention, noninvolvement, plain living, prevention, refrainment, sexual abstinence, shunning, shunting off, shy, sidestep, sidetracking, simple diet, slip, spare diet, teetotalism, the pledge, the runaround, total abstinence, vegetarianism, zigzag