refer

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To direct the attention of (someone toward something)
  2. To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere.
  3. To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation.
  4. To mention (something); to direct attention (to something)
  5. To make reference to; to be about; to relate to; to regard; to allude to.
  6. To be referential to another element in a sentence.
  7. To point to either a specific location in computer memory or to a specific object.
  8. To require to resit an examination.
  9. To have the meaning of, to denote.
  10. To cause (pain) to be felt elsewhere.
  11. To apparently relocate; to be felt in another place than where it is actually caused.
noun
  1. A blurb on the front page of a newspaper issue or section that refers the reader to the full story inside the issue or section by listing its slug or headline and its page number.

Pronunciation

/ɹɪˈfɜː/ rī-fûr /ɹɪˈfɝ/ en-us-refer.ogg /ɹɪˈfɛr/ /ɹəˈføː/ /ɹɪˈfeː/ /ɹɪˈfɛː/ /ɹɪˈfɜː(ɹ)/ /ˈɹiːfə/ /ˈɹifɚ/ En-au-reefer.ogg

Word forms

refer refers referring referred

Etymology

From Middle English referren, from Old French referer, from Latin referre. The noun (used in journalism) is from the verb. Doublet of relate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.