 2 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Refrain \Re*frain"\ (r[-e]*fr[=a]n"), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p.
{Refrained} (-fr[=a]nd"); p. pr. & vb. n. {Refraining}.] [OE.
refreinen, OF. refrener, F. refr['e]ner, fr. L. refrenare;
influenced by OF. refraindre to restrain, moderate, fr. LL.
refrangere, for L. refringere to break up, break (see
{Refract}). L. refrenare is fr. pref. re- back + frenum
bridle; cf. Skr. dh[.r] to hold.]
1. To hold back; to restrain; to keep within prescribed
bounds; to curb; to govern.
His reason refraineth not his foul delight or
talent. --Chaucer.
Refrain thy foot from their path. --Prov. i. 15.
2. To abstain from. [Obs.]
Who, requiring a remedy for his gout, received no
other counsel than to refrain cold drink. --Sir T.
Browne.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
63 Moby Thesaurus words for "refraining":
Encratism, Friday, Lenten fare, Pythagoreanism, Pythagorism,
Rechabitism, Shakerism, Spartan fare, Stoicism, abstainment,
abstemiousness, abstention, abstinence, asceticism, avoidance,
avoiding reaction, banyan day, celibacy, chastity, circumvention,
continence, defense mechanism, dodge, duck, elusion, elusiveness,
equivocation, escape, eschewal, evasion, evasive action,
evasiveness, fast, fish day, forbearance, forestalling,
forestallment, fruitarianism, getting around, gymnosophy, jink,
nephalism, neutrality, nonintervention, noninvolvement,
plain living, prevention, refrainment, sexual abstinence, shunning,
shunting off, shy, sidestep, sidetracking, simple diet, slip,
spare diet, teetotalism, the pledge, the runaround,
total abstinence, vegetarianism, zigzag
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