Definitions for refer
rɪˈfɜrre·fer

Princeton's WordNet(1.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. mention, advert, bring up, cite, name, referverb

   make reference to

   "His name was mentioned in connection with the invention"

2. refer, pertain, relate, concern, come to, bear on, touch, touch on, have-to doe withverb

   be relevant to

   "There were lots of questions referring to her talk"; "My remark pertained to your earlier comments"

3. referverb

   think of, regard, or classify under a subsuming principle or with a general group or in relation to another

   "This plant can be referred to a known species"

4. referverb

   send or direct for treatment, information, or a decision

   "refer a patient to a specialist"; "refer a bill to a committee"

5. consult, refer, look upverb

   seek information from

   "You should consult the dictionary"; "refer to your notes"

6. denote, referverb

   have as a meaning

   "`multi-' denotes `many' "

7. referverb

   use a name to designate

   "Christians refer to the mother of Jesus as the Virgin Mary"

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. referverb

   To direct the attention of.

   The shop assistant referred me to the help desk on ground floor.

   Etymology: * From referren, from referer, from referre, from re- + ferre; see bher- in Indo-European Roots.

2. referverb

   To submit to an authority figure for consideration.

   He referred the matter to the principal.

   Etymology: * From referren, from referer, from referre, from re- + ferre; see bher- in Indo-European Roots.

3. referverb

   To allude to, make a reference or allusion to.

   Etymology: * From referren, from referer, from referre, from re- + ferre; see bher- in Indo-European Roots.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Referverb

   to carry or send back

   Etymology: [F. rfrer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

2. Referverb

   hence: To send or direct away; to send or direct elsewhere, as for treatment, aid, information, decision, etc.; to make over, or pass over, to another; as, to refer a student to an author; to refer a beggar to an officer; to refer a bill to a committee; a court refers a matter of fact to a commissioner for investigation, or refers a question of law to a superior tribunal

   Etymology: [F. rfrer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

3. Referverb

   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; as, he referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances

   Etymology: [F. rfrer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

4. Referverb

   to have recourse; to apply; to appeal; to betake one's self; as, to refer to a dictionary

   Etymology: [F. rfrer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

5. Referverb

   to have relation or reference; to relate; to point; as, the figure refers to a footnote

   Etymology: [F. rfrer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

6. Referverb

   to carry the mind or thought; to direct attention; as, the preacher referred to the late election

   Etymology: [F. rfrer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

7. Referverb

   to direct inquiry for information or a guarantee of any kind, as in respect to one's integrity, capacity, pecuniary ability, and the like; as, I referred to his employer for the truth of his story

   Etymology: [F. rfrer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. refer

   refer is a program for managing bibliographic references, and citing them in troff documents. It is implemented as a troff preprocessor. refer was written by Mike E. Lesk at Bell Laboratories in or before 1978, and is now available as part of most Unix-like operating systems. A free reimplementation exists as part of the groff package. refer works with a reference file, a text file where the author lists works to which she might want to refer. One such reference might look like: The author then can refer to it in her troff document by listing keywords which uniquely match this reference: refer sees little use today, primarily because troff itself is not used much for longer technical writing that might need software support for reference and citation management.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Refer

   rē-fėr, v.t. to submit to another person or authority: to assign: to reduce: to carry back: to trace back: to hand over for consideration: to deliver over, as to refer a matter: to appeal: to direct for information.—v.i. to direct the attention: to give a reference: to have reference or recourse: to relate: to allude:—pr.p. refer′ring; pa.t. and pa.p. referred′.—adjs. Ref′erable, Refer′rible, that may be referred or assigned to.—ns. Referēē′, one to whom anything is referred: an arbitrator, umpire, or judge; Ref′erence, the act of referring: a submitting for information or decision: relation: allusion: one who, or that which, is referred to: (law) the act of submitting a dispute for investigation or decision: a testimonial: a direction in a book, a quotation; Ref′erence-Bī′ble, a Bible having references to parallel passages; Ref′erence-book, a book to be referred to or consulted, as an encyclopædia; Ref′erence-Lī′brary, a library containing books to be consulted only in the premises.—n.pl. Ref′erence-marks (print.), the characters *, †, &c., used to refer to notes, &c.—ns. Referendar′, in Germany, a legal probationer who has passed the first of the two examinations for the judicial service; Referen′dary, one to whose decision a cause is referred, a referee: formerly a public official whose duty was to procure, execute, and despatch diplomas and charters, or who served as the medium of communication with a sovereign: the official through whom the patriarch of Constantinople communicates with the civil authorities; Referen′dum, in Switzerland, the right of the people to have all legislative acts passed in the Federal or Cantonal Assemblies referred to them en masse.—adj. Referen′tial, containing a reference: pointing or referring to something else.—adv. Referen′tially, in the way of reference.—ns. Refer′ment; Refer′rer. [O. Fr. referer (référer)—L. referre, to carry back—re-, back, ferre, to carry.]

Matched Categories

1. • Call
   • Classify
   • Mean
   • Send

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'refer' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2813

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'refer' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2010

3. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'refer' in Verbs Frequency: #166

Anagrams for refer »

1. freer

How to pronounce refer?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say refer in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of refer in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of refer in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of refer in a Sentence

1. Albert Einstein:

   As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

2. Scott Minerd:

   If it were to move I think it would go out of its way to say ... there's no rush to do anything else, if it doesn't, it will refer to the market turmoil, and say that ... a rate increase is inevitable.

3. Ken Paxton:

   It is unconscionable that abortion providers are fighting against the health of Texans and withholding desperately needed supplies and personal protective equipment in favor of a procedure that they refer to as a choice.

4. White House spokesman Josh Earnest:

   We are aware of the matter and have temporarily placed the employee in question on unpaid leave and revoked her access to the complex until we have more information, We will take additional actions as needed. For further questions, I would refer you to the Prince George’s County Police Department.

5. Emily Fuentes:

   We’ve really never seen this in the West before, many of these refugees experience two kind of persecution that we refer to as smash and squeeze.

Popularity rank by frequency of use