refrain

«refrain» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: stop yourself; hold back — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

kind

archaic word

modern equivalent

stop yourself; hold back

part of speech

verb and noun

meaning for a pupil

To stop yourself from doing something; to hold back; in old usage also used with "himself". tree →

how it differs from today

Today we say "refrain from" and it is formal; the reflexive form "refrained himself" and "could not refrain himself" is old, and the noun "refrain" (a repeated line) is today's sense.

examples

• And he washed his face, and came out; and he refrained himself, and said: 'Set on bread.' (Torah GEN.43.31, JPS 1917) tree →
• Every verse ended with this refrain,-- (Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen) tree →
• Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried: 'Cause every man to go out from me.' And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. (Torah GEN.45.1, JPS 1917) tree →

primary record

refrain

tests

rate: word (≥3 uses, never in EWT or ≥10× EWT, Wiktionary: first sense archaic); corpora 25 (Torah 1, tales 23, Sefer Yetzirah 1); EWT 0; ratio 2.8 (Torah alone 2.3); Wiktionary archaic (first sense)

In the corpora

• And he washed his face, and came out; and he refrained himself, and said: 'Set on bread.'
• Wilt Thou refrain Thyself for these things, O LORD?
• I have preached righteousness in the great congregation, lo, I did not refrain my lips; O LORD, Thou knowest.
• I have refrained my feet from every evil way, in order that I might observe Thy word.
• In the multitude of words there wanteth not transgression; but he that refraineth his lips is wise.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «refrain» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.