refer
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English referren, from Old French referer, from Latin referre.
Pronunciation
- (UK) enPR: rī-fû, IPA(key): /ɹɪˈfɜː/
- (US) enPR: rī-fûr, IPA(key): /ɹɪˈfɝ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: re‧fer
Verb
refer (third-person singular simple present refers, present participle referring, simple past and past participle referred)
- (transitive) To direct the attention of (someone toward something)
- The shop assistant referred me to the help desk on ground floor.
- (transitive) To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere.
- He referred the matter to the principal.
- to refer a patient to a psychiatrist
- (transitive) 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.
- He referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.
- (intransitive) To mention (something); to direct attention (to something)
- To explain the problem, the teacher referred to an example in another textbook.
- (intransitive, stative) To make reference to; to be about; to relate to; to regard; to allude to.
- The recipe referred to several unusual ingredients.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?) (grammar) To be referential to another element in a sentence.
- (intransitive, programming) To point to either a specific location in computer memory or to a specific object. [+ to (object)]
- In C, the pointer obtained by
&arefers to the variablea.
- 2010 September 1, Ajay Mittal, Programming In C: A Practical Approach, Pearson Education India, →ISBN, OCLC 1047790524, page 201:
- Hence, the precise number of bytes to which the pointer refers to is not known. The compiler must know the number of bytes to which a pointer refers to in order to apply dereference operation
- In C, the pointer obtained by
- (intransitive, education) Required to resit an examination.
- Smith's marks in the finals were unsatisfactory and he was referred.
Synonyms
- delegate
- direct
Derived terms
- refer to
- refer someone to
Related terms
- reference
- referral
- relate
- relative
- relation
- relationship
Translations
to direct to a source for help or information
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to submit to an authority figure for consideration
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to direct the attention of
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to allude to (grammar term)
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further reading
refer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Etymology 2
Conversion of refer (noun)
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɹiːfə/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈɹiːfɝ/
Audio (AU) (file) - Homophone: reefer
- Rhymes: -iːfə(ɹ)
Noun
refer (plural refers)
- (journalism) 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.
- 2015 August 5, “Corrections”, in The Herald-News, Joliet, Illinois: Shaw Media, page 2:
- A refer on page 1 of the Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, edition of The Herald-News contained incorrect information about the story “Neighbors at odds over Joliet liquor license” that appeared on Page 4 of the same edition.
- 2017 May 1, Aruani, Amanda May, “Letter from the Editor”, in The Arts Paper, New Haven, Connecticut: The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, page 3:
- Looking at the refers on page 2, it's obvious that May became something of an accidental women's issue.
- 2021 September 10, Blumenthal, Ralph, “A Time Capsule in Two Front Pages”, in The New York Times, New York City:
- The paper of Sept. 11 was not without its alarms. On Page One, an ominous “refer” (pronounced reefer) to an article inside the paper: Palestinian snipers had killed two Israelis, bringing a retaliatory shelling by Israeli tanks. On A3: A suicide bomber had killed two police officers in Istanbul.
-
Anagrams
- Ferre, Freer, Frere, freer
Catalan
Etymology
re- + fer (“to do”).
Pronunciation
- (Balearic, Central) IPA(key): /rəˈfe/
- (Valencian) IPA(key): /reˈfeɾ/
Verb
refer (first-person singular present refaig, past participle refet)
- to redo
Conjugation
Conjugation of refer (second conjugation, irregular)
| infinitive | refer | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present participle | refent | ||||||
| past participle | masculine | feminine | |||||
| singular | refet | refeta | |||||
| plural | refets | refetes | |||||
| person | singular | plural | |||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | jo | tu | ell/ella vostè | nosaltres nós | vosaltres vós | ells/elles vostès | |
| present | refaig | refàs | refà | refem | refeu | refan | |
| imperfect | refeia | refeies | refeia | refèiem | refèieu | refeien | |
| future | refaré | refaràs | refarà | refarem | refareu | refaran | |
| preterite | refiu | referes | reféu | reférem | reféreu | referen | |
| conditional | refaria | refaries | refaria | refariem | refarieu | refarien | |
| subjunctive | jo | tu | ell/ella vostè | nosaltres nós | vosaltres vós | ells/elles vostès | |
| present | refaci | refacis | refaci | refem | refeu | refacin | |
| imperfect | refés | refessis | refés | reféssim | reféssiu | refessin | |
| imperative | — | tu | vostè | nosaltres | vosaltres vós | vostès | |
| — | refés | refaci | refem | refeu | refacin | ||
Further reading
- “refer” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “refer”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
- “refer” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “refer” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Latin
Verb
refer
- second-person singular present active imperative of referō