refrain

«refrain» in Mova's school dictionary: To stop yourself from doing something: please refrain… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (refrain, refrains, refrained, refraining); noun (a refrain, refrains)

meaning for a pupil

1) (formal) To stop yourself from doing something: please refrain from talking. tree →

2) (noun) The part of a song or poem that is repeated, the chorus. tree →

3) (noun) A comment or complaint that people keep repeating. tree →

sense in the lessons

In formal signs and notices: «Please refrain from eating in the library.» In music and poetry lessons, the refrain is the repeated lines. Phrases: refrain from doing, a familiar refrain.

examples

• Please refrain from running in the corridors. tree →
• Passengers must refrain from smoking. tree →
• Everyone joined in the refrain of the song. tree →
• The poem has a refrain at the end of each verse. tree →
• I refrained from laughing at his joke. tree →
• «Are we there yet?» was the children's constant refrain. tree →
• Every verse ended with this refrain,-- tree →

note

The verb takes «from» + -ing: refrain from shouting. It is formal; in ordinary talk say «stop» or «don't». The noun refrain is like a chorus.

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.