meaning of refer
1. To carry or send back.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. To have recourse; to apply; to appeal; to betake ones self; as, to refer to a dictionary.
5. To have relation or reference; to relate; to point; as, the figure refers to a footnote.
6. To carry the mind or thought; to direct attention; as, the preacher referred to the late election.
7. To direct inquiry for information or a guarantee of any kind, as in respect to ones integrity, capacity, pecuniary ability, and the like; as, I referred to his employer for the truth of his story.
8. 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"
Related Words
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