Dictionary Definition
refer
Verb
1 make reference to; "His name was mentioned in
connection with the invention" [syn: mention, advert, bring up,
cite, name]
2 have to do with or be relevant to; "There were
lots of questions referring to her talk"; "My remark pertained to
your earlier comments" [syn: pertain, relate, concern, come to, bear on, touch, touch on]
3 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 send or direct for treatment, information, or a
decision; "refer a patient to a specialist"; "refer a bill to a
committee"
5 seek information from; "You should consult the
dictionary"; "refer to your notes" [syn: consult, look up]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- Rhymes with: -ɜː(r)
Etymology
- From referren, from referer, from referre, from re- + ferre; see bher- in Indo-European Roots.
Verb
Translations
To direct to a source for help or information
- Arabic:
- Chinese: 談到, 谈到 (tándào)
- Dutch: verwijzen, doorverwijzen
- Finnish: ohjata, neuvoa
- French: référer
- German: verweisen
- Greek: παραπέμπω (parapémpo)
- Hungarian: hivatkozni, vonatkozik
- Italian: riferire
- Japanese: 問い合わせる (といあわせる, toiawaseru)
- Korean: 언급하다 (eongeuphada)
- Portuguese: referir
- Russian: относить (otnosít’)
- Spanish: referir
- Swedish: hänvisa (till)
To submit to an authority figure for
consideration
- Dutch: verwijzen
- Greek: παραπέμπω (parapémpo)
- Swedish: hänvisa (till)
To direct the attention of
- Dutch: verwijzen
- Greek: αναφέρω (anaféro)
- Swedish: hänvisa (till)
To allude to
- Finnish: viitata
Extensive Definition
Refer can mean:
- To refer a patient is to transfer their care from one clinician to another
- Refer (software), the troff preprocessor for citations
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
account for, accredit, accredit with,
accrete to, acknowledge, address to,
advert, advert to,
advise, advise with,
affect, allude, allude to, answer to,
appeal to, appertain to, apply, apply to, argue, ascribe to, ask, assign, assign to, attach to,
attribute, attribute
to, bargain, be
construed as, be taken as, bear on, bear upon, belong to, bespeak, betoken, blame, blame for, blame on,
blurt, blurt out, breathe, bring home to, bring
into play, bring to attention, bring to notice, bring up, call
attention to, call in, charge, charge on, charge to,
check, cite, collogue, comment, commit, commune, compare notes, concern, confer, confer with, confess, connect, connect with, connote, consult, consult with, convert
to use, correspond to, counsel, credit, credit with, cross-refer,
cross-reference, deal with, deliberate, denominate, denote, designate, direct, direct attention to,
direct to, discuss,
discuss with, emblematize, enlist into
service, exchange observations, exchange views, exclaim, fall back upon, fasten
upon, father upon, figure, finger, fix on, fix upon, focus
on, glance, go, hand in, hand over, hang on, have
connection with, have conversations, have recourse to, hold
conference, imply,
import, impress, impute, impute to, indicate, inquire of, insert, instance, interest, interject, interpolate, introduce, invoke, involve, lay, lay to, let drop, let fall,
liaise with, link with, look at, look to, make a cross-reference,
make reference to, mean,
mention, muse, name, negotiate, note, observe, opine, palaver, parley, pass on, pass over,
pertain to, pick out, pin on, pinpoint, place upon, point at,
point out, point to, powwow, put heads together, put
in requisition, quote,
reason with, recur, recur
to, refer to, reference, reflect, regard, relate to, remark, repair, resort to, respect, revert to, run, saddle on, saddle with,
say, select, send, set down to, settle upon,
signify, sit down
together, sit down with, speak, specify, spell, stand for, stigmatize, study, suggest, symbol, symbolize, take counsel, take
note of, take to, take up with, talk over, talk to, tie in with,
touch, touch on, touch
upon, treat of, turn, turn
to, turn to use, typify,
use