Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Refer

Re·fer′ (rē·fẽr′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Referred (-fẽrd); p. pr. & vb. n. Referring.] [F. référer, L. referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.] 1. To carry or send back. [Obs.] Chaucer.

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.

To refer one's self, to have recourse; to betake one's self; to make application; to appeal. [Obs.]

I'll refer me to all things sense. Shak.

Re·fer′, v. i. 1. To have recourse; to apply; to appeal; to betake one's self; as, to refer to a dictionary.

In suits . . . it is to refer to some friend of trust. Bacon.

2. To have relation or reference; to relate; to point; as, the figure refers to a footnote.

Of those places that refer to the shutting and opening the abyss, I take notice of that in Job. Bp. Burnet.

3. To carry the mind or thought; to direct attention; as, the preacher referred to the late election.

4. To direct inquiry for information or a guarantee of any kind, as in respect to one's integrity, capacity, pecuniary ability, and the like; as, I referred to his employer for the truth of his story.

Syn. — To allude; advert; suggest; appeal. Refer, Allude, Advert. We refer to a thing by specifically and distinctly introducing it into our discourse. We allude to it by introducing it indirectly or indefinitely, as by something collaterally allied to it. We advert to it by turning off somewhat abruptly to consider it more at large. Thus, Macaulay refers to the early condition of England at the opening of his history; he alludes to these statements from time to time; and adverts, in the progress of his work, to various circumstances of peculiar interest, on which for a time he dwells. "But to do good is . . . that that Solomon chiefly refers to in the text." Sharp. "This, I doubt not, was that artificial structure here alluded to." T. Burnet.

Now to the universal whole advert: The earth regard as of that whole a part. Blackmore.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.