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Refrain   Listen
verb
Refrain  v. t.  (past & past part. refrained; pres. part. refraining)  
1.
To hold back; to restrain; to keep within prescribed bounds; to curb; to govern. "His reason refraineth not his foul delight or talent." "Refrain thy foot from their path."
2.
To abstain from. (Obs.) "Who, requiring a remedy for his gout, received no other counsel than to refrain cold drink."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Refrain" Quotes from Famous Books



... that could whistle a tune So piercingly pure and sweet, That tears would fall from the eyes of the moon In dewdrops at its feet; And the winds would sigh at the sweet refrain, Till they swooned in an ecstacy, To waken again in a hurricane Of ...
— The Complete Works • James Whitcomb Riley

... was numbered from one to eight, and they were such exciting subjects and so beautifully executed that I cannot refrain from giving a description of them to the reader. Number one represented a beautiful girl reclining on a sofa, her petticoats raised to reveal the lower portion of her body. Her head was thrown back, her breasts ...
— The Life and Amours of the Beautiful, Gay and Dashing Kate Percival - The Belle of the Delaware • Kate Percival

... Ere the dire sentence on her father past! A fonder parent nature never knew; And as his age increas'd, his fondness grew. A parent's love ne'er better was bestow'd; The pious daughter in her heart o'erflow'd. And can she from all weakness still refrain? And still the firmness of her soul maintain? Impossible! a sigh will force its way; One patient tear her mortal birth betray; She sighs and weeps! but so she weeps and sighs, As silent dews descend, and vapours rise. Celestial patience! how dost thou defeat The foe's proud menace, and elude ...
— The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 • Edward Young

... and those which are operated solely for personal gain to the detriment of all except the few directly interested. You may report back to your constituents, Senator Hunt, that the Administration will refrain from further action in this matter for the present, and will direct its efforts toward securing amendments to the Sherman Act which shall make it possible to draw a distinction between good and bad trusts, as ...
— The Lever - A Novel • William Dana Orcutt

... original Hetty than she had been for many days. Love could not enthrone himself easily in Hetty's nature: it was a rebellious kingdom. "Thirty-seven years old! Hetty Gunn, you 're a goose," were Hetty's last thoughts as she fell asleep that night. But when she awoke the next morning, the same refrain, "Why not, why not?" filled her thoughts; and, when she bade Dr. Eben good-morning, the rosy color that mounted to her very temples ...
— Hetty's Strange History • Helen Jackson

... fighting together, and not separating before one had well beaten the other. He then said to himself: "I shall no longer distress myself at being struck at by these Game-cocks, when I see that they cannot even refrain from quarreling with ...
— Aesop's Fables - A New Revised Version From Original Sources • Aesop

... din of shouts, wild music, and discharges of artillery, to the house that had been prepared for him. "I cannot easily describe," says Count Gamba, "the emotions which such a scene excited. I could scarcely refrain ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 6 (of 6) - With his Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... head to the blast he swayed like a drunken man. More than once as he stumbled over fallen trees the impulse to sit and rest almost overcame him; but knowing the danger of such a course he forced himself to refrain. Once as he halted in the shelter of a giant fir, his back resting against the trunk, he was conscious of a deadly, delicious languor creeping through his frame, and knowing it for the beginning of the dreaded snow-sleep which ...
— A Mating in the Wilds • Ottwell Binns

... mountains. Already Van was riding up the slope, where larger pines, tall thickets of green chincopin, and ledges of rock compelled the trail to many devious windings. Once more the horseman was whistling his Toreador refrain. He did not look back at his charges. That he was watching them both, from the tail of his eye, was a fact that Beth ...
— The Furnace of Gold • Philip Verrill Mighels

... pleased to call it," he said with concentrated scorn, "has incidentally made our name famous, and cleared the old place of mortgage. For that reason alone, you might have the grace to refrain from insulting my wife." ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver

... one place to look for it." Herndon makes no bones about confessing that their office was very dirty. So neglected was it that a young man of neat habits who entered the office as a law student under Lincoln could not refrain from cleaning it up, and the next visitor exclaimed in astonishment, ...
— Lincoln • Nathaniel Wright Stephenson

... the United States Government feels that it cannot reasonably be expected to advise its citizens to seek redress before tribunals which are, in its opinion, unauthorized by the unrestricted application of international law to grant reparation, nor to refrain from presenting their claims directly to the British Government through ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 8) • Francis J. (Francis Joseph) Reynolds, Allen L. (Allen Leon)

... Till they reached the station Rudin spoke of the dignity of man, of the meaning of true independence. He spoke nobly, fervently, and justly, and when the moment of separation had come, Bassistoff could not refrain from throwing himself on his neck and sobbing. Rudin himself shed tears too, but he was not weeping because he was parting from Bassistoff. His tears were the ...
— Rudin • Ivan Turgenev

... so long as you refrain from calling me Barney, which in my estimation is a low and vulgar cognomen, that I am unwilling to have ...
— The Young Lieutenant - or, The Adventures of an Army Officer • Oliver Optic

... the early Christians—a remark I had not expected to hear in that assembly. Then there was another hymn, "Beautiful Land of Rest," when it did one good to hear the unction with which the second syllable of the refrain ...
— Mystic London: - or, Phases of occult life in the metropolis • Charles Maurice Davies

... "associations" under a 1998 law revised in 2000; to obtain government approval parties must accept the constitution and refrain from advocating or using violence against the regime; approved parties include the National Congress Party or NCP [Ibrahim Ahmed UMAR], Popular National Congress or PNC [Hassan al-TURABI], and ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... surround the unprotected females, should the bands of subordination be once fairly broken among so lawless and desperate a crew. "On your lives, fall back, and obey. And you, sir, who claim to be so good a soldier, I call on you to bid your men refrain." ...
— The Red Rover • James Fenimore Cooper

... knew that she could rely on Thomas to bring the carriage to her order. So the next morning she went very early to call on Griselda Kilgour. Griselda had not seen her niece for some time, and she was shocked at the change in her appearance, indeed, she could hardly refrain the exclamations of pity and fear that flew ...
— A Knight of the Nets • Amelia E. Barr

... invitation of the rare grass along the marsh invited the way-weary to halt to tie a sandal, to bind up a wound, to eat a crust spread with curds or simply to rest. No one approached the silent man who had fallen beside a dying fire. They were tired enough to refrain from disturbing a man who slept. So, though they looked at him from where they sat and two or three asked each other if he were asleep or merely weary, he was left alone. One by one they who halted took up their journey again and the figure in the grass ...
— The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem • Elizabeth Miller

... through the more populated quarters of Rome towards the Corso, and he had not proceeded very far in this direction before he heard a frenzied and discordant shouting which, though he knew it did not yet bear the truth in its harsh refrain, yet staggered him and made his heart almost stand still with an ...
— The Master-Christian • Marie Corelli

... poor mistress,' says Gladys, unable any longer to refrain from approaching her. 'All is well; ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale

... cannot lead to stable knowledge, its processes are not applicable to a large number of philosophical questions (91). You value the art, but remember that it gave rise to fallacies like the sorites, which you say is faulty (92). If it is so, refute it. The plan of Chrysippus to refrain from answering, will avail you nothing (93). If you refrain because you cannot answer, your knowledge fails you, if you can answer and yet refrain, you are unfair (94). The art you admire really undoes itself, as Penelope ...
— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... a far-fetched coincidence, good reader! Well, all we can say is that we could tell you of another—a double—coincidence, which was far more extraordinary than this one, but as it has nothing to do with our tale we refrain from inflicting ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... own right hand, I charge thy heart my counsels to conceal. Late have I seen, and seeing took delight, And with delight, I will not say, I love A prince, an earl, a county in the court. But love and duty force me to refrain, And drive away these fond affections, Submitting them unto my father's hest. But this, good aunt, this is my chiefest pain, Because I stand at such uncertain stay. For, if my kingly father would decree His final doom, that I must lead my life Such ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition) • Various

... entertain a belief that cow's milk is hurtful to infants, and, consequently, refrain from giving it; but this is a very great mistake, for both sugar and milk should form a large portion of ...
— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... none who had more gladly welcomed and would yet welcome him than myself, who am more beholden to him than any other woman, seeing that by his means I have gotten thee again; but the unseemly words spoken in the days when we mourned him whom we deemed Tedaldo made me refrain therefrom.' Quoth her husband, 'Go to; thinkest thou I believe in the howlers?[188] He hath right well shown their prate to be false by procuring my deliverance; more by token that I never believed it. Quick, rise and go ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio

... her hair without a glass. The only action taken by Mr. Dosson on his elder daughter's admonitions was to convert the general issue, as Mr. Flack would have called it, to a theme for daily pleasantry. He was fond, in his intercourse with his children, of some small usual joke, some humorous refrain; and what could have been more in the line of true domestic sport than a little gentle but unintermitted raillery on Francie's conquest? Mr. Flack's attributive intentions became a theme of indulgent parental chaff, and the girl was neither dazzled nor ...
— The Reverberator • Henry James

... march. The first thing I knew a sick man was on the Major's horse (he was Major then), and he was trudging along in the mud with the rest of us, and carrying the muskets of three other men who were badly used up. [Footnote: I cannot refrain here from paying a tribute to my old schoolmate and friend, Major James Cromwell, of the 124th New York Volunteers, whom I have seen plodding along in the mud in a November storm, a sick soldier riding his horse, ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe

... late been said in regard to women not making use of the ballot there. I care little about that statement one way or the other, as long as her right to vote is not interfered with. It will be time to require all women to vote when we have such a law for men; until then let each voter refrain from voting at his or her own option; it is not the vital question. But there is a point connected with woman's voting in Wyoming that is well worthy of our consideration. That is, the interference of the United States with the concomitants ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... much worn this year," she laughed, and wondered the while what evil instinct tempted her to play this dangerous game; why she could not refrain from peering into the deeper places of his nature to see if her image were still there and still supreme? Why should she, almost involuntarily, work to create and foster an emotion upon which she set no store, which indeed, only amused her in its milder manifestations and frightened ...
— New Faces • Myra Kelly

... to refrain from publishing medical recipes, such as pimple removers and the like, always advising a consultation with a first-class physician, who will prescribe some blood-purifying compound for the relief or cure of the trouble. In our younger days, ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume VIII, No 25: May 21, 1887 • Various

... together seriously and in low voices. The same recollections fill their hearts—recollections which they refrain from acknowledging, but the influence of which each knows by instinct that the other partakes. Sometimes one leads the conversation, sometimes another; but whoever speaks, the topic chosen is always, as if by common consent, a ...
— After Dark • Wilkie Collins

... enemies are enjoined to preserve the peace toward the United States and to refrain from crime against the public safety and from violating the laws of the United States and of the States and Territories thereof, and to refrain from actual hostility or giving information, aid or comfort to the enemies of the ...
— In Our First Year of the War - Messages and Addresses to the Congress and the People, - March 5, 1917 to January 6, 1918 • Woodrow Wilson

... manana. Never having measured the distance to my prospect, I have tried for the past two days to give you an approximate idea. But in this country you must know that distance is a deceptive, 'find X' sort of proposition—so please refrain from asking me that same question every two miles. If the water holds out we'll get there; and when we get there we'll find more water, and then you may shave three times a day if you feel so inclined, I'm sorry you have a blister on your off heel, and I sympathize ...
— The Long Chance • Peter B. Kyne

... No constituted power, whether that of king or judge, has yet convicted me of any culpable action. Apart from the courtesy which should be observed between officers of the same rank, you, out of simple justice, should refrain ...
— International Short Stories: French • Various

... matters into their own hands and force the men to stop the War. They meet in solemn conclave, and Lysistrata expounds her scheme, the rigorous application to husbands and lovers of a self-denying ordinance—"we must refrain from the male organ altogether." Every wife and mistress is to refuse all sexual favours whatsoever, till the men have come to terms of peace. In cases where the women must yield 'par force majeure,' then it is to be with an ill grace and in such a way as to afford the minimum of gratification ...
— The Eleven Comedies - Vol. I • Aristophanes et al

... his shoulders, without, however, being able to refrain from smiling at the same time. "How is it that, being from the south, you come to fish on ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... eight-oared boat, spinning down the harbor or up the river, with G. W. S—— at the stroke —as earnest and determined in the Undine then as in the New York office of the London "Times'' now, every condition was satisfied for bodily exercise and mental recreation. I cannot refrain from mentioning that our club sent the first challenge to row that ever passed between Yale and Harvard, even though I am obliged to confess that we were soundly beaten; but neither that defeat at Lake Quinsigamond, nor ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... unconscious. Such is the case, for instance, with regard to all those customary actions, the sum of which constitute "the behavior of a well-bred person." Our impulse might be to pay a certain visit, but we know that we might disturb our friend, that it is not her day for receiving, and we refrain; we may be comfortably seated in a corner of the drawing-room, but a venerable person enters, and we rise to our feet; we are not much attracted by this lady, but nevertheless we also bow or shake ...
— Spontaneous Activity in Education • Maria Montessori

... now Friday afternoon. Marjorie had spent the morning in writing a fifteen-page letter to Mary, the minor refrain of which was: "I can't tell you how much I miss you, Mary," and which contained views regarding her future high school career that were far from being optimistic. She had not finished her letter. She decided to leave it open until after luncheon and, laying it aside for the time, she ...
— Marjorie Dean High School Freshman • Pauline Lester

... Maurice Dawson would have suspected he was extracting the keenest enjoyment from these proceedings, yet such was the fact. There was something so intensely ludicrous in the whole business, that only by assuming preternatural gravity could he refrain from breaking into merriment. His policy was to egg on the discussion until the company were ready for a decision, when he would interpose with the proposal to wipe out the whole matter and begin over again. The earnestness of Wade Ruggles, however, threatened to check anything of that nature. ...
— A Waif of the Mountains • Edward S. Ellis

... letter from Michael Faraday, dated "Royal Institution, 29th May 1847," requesting me to pay him some attention and show him round the works. I did so with all my heart, and wrote to Mr. Faraday intimating how much pleasure it gave me to serve him in any respect. I cannot refrain from ...
— James Nasmyth's Autobiography • James Nasmyth

... plume he assumed was "Silence Dogood." Over that signature he wrote many articles before it was ascertained that he was the author. These articles attracted so much attention that young Benjamin could not refrain from claiming their paternity. This led his brother and others to regard him with far more respect ...
— Benjamin Franklin, A Picture of the Struggles of Our Infant Nation One Hundred Years Ago - American Pioneers and Patriots Series • John S. C. Abbott

... know as well as I, has been entrusted the sceptre of Polycrates and all his power; and now it is open to me to be your ruler; but that for the doing of which I find fault with my neighbour, I will myself refrain from doing, so far as I may: for as I did not approve of Polycrates acting as master of men who were not inferior to himself, so neither do I approve of any other who does such things. Now Polycrates for ...
— The History Of Herodotus - Volume 1(of 2) • Herodotus

... should marry me, and when you become famous and rich, and patients flock to your office, and fashionable people to your home, and every one wants to know who you are and whence you came, you 'll be obliged to bring out the governor, and the judge, and the rest of them. If you should refrain, in order to forestall embarrassing inquiries about my ancestry, I should have deprived you of something you are entitled to, something which has a real social value. And when people found out ...
— The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and - Selected Essays • Charles Waddell Chesnutt

... relationship with the Christians will not make us deviate from the path we have always been following; on the contrary, with a certain degree of artfulness and cunning, this relationship will gradually make us full masters of their destinies. It is desirable, that the Israelites refrain from keeping concubines of our holy faith and rather select Christian girls for the part. The substitution of the simple formality of a contract before some civil power for the church ceremony is of the greatest importance to us, because on this ...
— The History of a Lie - 'The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion' • Herman Bernstein

... his game badly worsted by Molly, who could never refrain from taunting her conquered foe, was glad to make a digression by bringing both the hip-boots and a long worsted scarf, as well, and after the father had passed out came to ...
— Sara, a Princess • Fannie E. Newberry

... when he goes out. How can I urge my daughters now to go and raise large families? It means by the time you have lost your figure and charm for them they are all ashamed of you. Now, as a believer in woman's rights, do a little talking to the men as to their duties to their wives, or else refrain from urging us women to have children. I am only one of thousands of middle-class respectable women who give their lives to raise a nice family, and then who become bitter from the injustice done us. Don't let this go into the ...
— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... room, and I did the same, with what I hope was a withering glance at the open-mouthed Uncle Tom, who for days afterwards interlarded his conversation with the refrain that he was blessed if he could ...
— The Lowest Rung - Together with The Hand on the Latch, St. Luke's Summer and The Understudy • Mary Cholmondeley

... consequences, and that he had determined to leave a country where he was of so little account. He would then close his eyes and ears to everything that might occur, and thus escape the infamy of remaining in a country where so little account was made of him. He was urged to refrain from reading this paper and to invite Tassis. After a time he consented to suppress the document, but he manfully refused to bid the objectionable diplomatist to ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... was water, while her husband was fire, tried to murmur some hopeful suggestion; and poor little Eustacie, clasping her hands, could scarcely refrain from uttering the cry, 'Oh, it is my uncle! Do not ...
— The Chaplet of Pearls • Charlotte M. Yonge

... should be another Austerlitz depended upon what might be done during the next two or three days. Napoleon did not act with his usual energy on that critical occasion, and in seven months he had ceased to reign. Why did he refrain from reaping the fruits of victory? Because the weather, which had been so favorable to his fortunes on the 27th, was quite as unfavorable to his person. On that day he was exposed to the rain for twelve hours, and when he returned to Dresden, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various

... disconsolate thoughts as these that prompted Davies to hail a taxicab and go directly to the stadium. He would refrain from his usual haunts this year and, through this refraining, see if he was missed. It was quite possible, did he not remind Harvard, year by year, as to just who he was, that the old college would forget him. He must remember that the world lived largely in the present ...
— Interference and Other Football Stories • Harold M. Sherman

... with vivid flashes of lightning to brighten it now and then, and nature's artillery had rolled until the Boers on Wednesday morning took Up the refrain with theirs. One poor old man was wounded in the arm as he lay sleeping in his bed. Houses here and there up Newton way were damaged, the occupiers escaping injury. The firing went on for several hours until heavy rains came down and put a stop ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan

... thought was: 'If we meet alone, I will speak to her as to a sister, I will beg her forgiveness; perhaps God will give me a word of truth for her. I will show her that I have hopes for her soul, and that I do not fear for my own." Don Clemente could not refrain from interrupting him. ...
— The Saint • Antonio Fogazzaro

... of missionaries to be misunderstood and spoken against, and we are aware that in any explanation we now offer we add to the risk of further misunderstanding; but we cast ourselves on the forbearance of our friends, and beg them to refrain from hasty and ill-formed judgments. If, on our part, there have been extreme statements, if individual missionaries have used intemperate words or have made demands out of harmony with the spirit of our Divine Lord, is it too much to ask that the anguish and peril through which ...
— An Inevitable Awakening • ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN

... paid the poem by General Wolfe is familiar to all, but we cannot refrain from quoting Lord Mahon's beautiful account of it in his History of England. On the night of September 13th, 1759, the night before the battle on the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe was descending the St. Lawrence with a part ...
— Select Poems of Thomas Gray • Thomas Gray

... thing that she realized was that the light was growing dim, and that her throat was aching, and that she was playing over and over a lovesong that had the refrain: ...
— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower

... her eyes. A heavy sob accompanied this effort. She looked wildly round, when she met the deep gaze of the stranger. With a faint shriek, she hid her face in the bosom of her attendant, who, overjoyed at her recovery, could scarcely refrain from falling at the feet of her deliverer. She turned to express her ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... thinking themselves in the hands of mere brutal barbarians, all they dared to do was to beg for their lives, which they did, says Clark, "with the greatest servancy [saying] they were willing to be slaves to save their families," though the bolder spirits could not refrain from cursing their fortune that they had not been warned in time to defend themselves. Now came Clark's chance for his winning stroke. He knew it was hopeless to expect his little band permanently to hold down a much more numerous hostile population, that was closely allied to many surrounding ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Two - From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783 • Theodore Roosevelt

... pleasantly forgetful of her parents' positive command that she refrain from walking alone on the motor-infested Sunday roads. She set off at a fast jog trot over the nearby hill, on whose other side ran ...
— His Dog • Albert Payson Terhune

... in some master passion as in their intellectual supremacy. Witness David and Jonathan, with love surpassing the love of women. Witness Socrates and his group of immortal friends. Witness Dante and his deathless love for Beatrice. Witness Tennyson and his refrain for Arthur Hallam. Witness the disciples and Christ, with "love as ...
— A Man's Value to Society - Studies in Self Culture and Character • Newell Dwight Hillis

... angry, and wisely withdrew. On Mr. Holt's learning the reception of his offer, he briefly remarked that he guessed Sam wouldn't object to own a farm near Cedar Creek, and he should buy it altogether from the captain, which was accordingly done. We refrain from picturing ...
— Cedar Creek - From the Shanty to the Settlement • Elizabeth Hely Walshe

... bitterest of all that party, and expresses himself with astonishing acrimony, talked in his usual strain, and I could not refrain from giving him a bit of my mind. He talked of 'the Lords having played their last trump,' of 'the impossibility of their going on, of the hostility towards them in the country, and the manner in which suggestions of reforming the House of Lords were ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. III • Charles C. F. Greville

... all my stoicism to refrain from whimpering; Mr. Langley gave utterance to a wish, which, if ever fulfilled, will consign the cities of Cronstadt, Stockholm, and Matanzas to the same fate which has rendered Sodom, Gomorrah, and Euphemia so celebrated. Mr. Brewster alone seemed indifferent. ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... quartette. The four living creatures round about the throne take up the refrain of John's solo. And, as they sing, their song is caught up by a sextuple quartette, twenty-four white-robed, crowned men ...
— Quiet Talks with World Winners • S. D. Gordon

... calling to him, and, looking up, saw above his head the four tower arches. "The arch never sleeps," cried one. "They have bound on us a burden too heavy to be borne," answered another. "We never sleep," said the third; and the fourth returned to the old refrain, "The arch never sleeps, ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner

... profit and much peril would succeed From any fight he should with her maintain, (And he advised him) as the better deed, To leave that wretched caitiff to his pain; And albeit but a simple nod should need To free him, from that nod he should refrain. In that the monarch would do ill to force Even-handed Justice ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... And then there is another point to consider in the case of convicts: their crimes may have been induced by irresistible forces and conditions, driving them to do evil.... But who is there who cannot refrain from doing good? To do good is certainly not ...
— Spontaneous Activity in Education • Maria Montessori

... me—because I should know this was a natural instinct with them—like taking food. It would probably be no temptation to most of us to steal gold lying about in a room, even if we were poor, but a hideous temptation to refrain from eating a tempting dish if we were starving with hunger and it was before us—and if a woman did succumb to some new passion I ...
— The Price of Things • Elinor Glyn

... Thus the refrain would agree exactly with the two that follow (ver. 11 and 43:5). Yet this conjecture, however plausible, is uncertain, since we do not know that the sacred writer sought exact ...
— Companion to the Bible • E. P. Barrows

... uttered this question in a tone at once so comical and so touching, that Croisilles, in spite of his sadness, could not refrain from laughing. ...
— International Short Stories: French • Various

... it! Looking out, I saw that some of the girls and women had come round to that side of the vehicle, and, doubtless, supposing that I was also a padre, had begun to kiss my hand. A certain feeling of pity or delicacy caused me to refrain from removing it—let them be happy in thinking they were also the recipient of some attention; and so I left it there. No one peered into the gloom of the vehicle's interior, or the supposed padre would have been discovered as a clean-shaven ...
— Mexico • Charles Reginald Enock

... no wise help her. He would not even passively discourage the vicar, or refrain from offering to give him a seat in going to the meets. Mark and Lord Lufton had been boys together, and his lordship knew that Mark in his heart would enjoy a brush across the country quite as well as he himself; and then what was the harm of it? Lady ...
— Framley Parsonage • Anthony Trollope

... clinch the argument a dozen of the ruffians swung their cannikins of rum in the air and began to shout a song at the top of their lungs. All the words that reached Jeremy were oaths except one phrase at the end of the refrain, repeated so often that he began to make out the sense of it. "Walk the bloody beggars all below!" it seemed to be—or "overboard"—he could not tell which. Either seemed bad enough to the boy just then and he turned to crawl homeward, with a sick feeling ...
— The Black Buccaneer • Stephen W. Meader

... worshipers may have seemed joyful and may have said many good things, but all the while you felt an inward uneasiness. There was some reason for this, and whether the reason was spiritual or merely human, it was wise to exercise carefulness. It is usually best to refrain from trying to make yourself blend with anything when you have that internal sense ...
— Heart Talks • Charles Wesley Naylor

... of versification, with a running refrain, afterwards became very popular with Jewish poets. Jannai also displays the harsh alliterations, the learned allusions to Midrash and Talmud, which were carried to ...
— Chapters on Jewish Literature • Israel Abrahams

... the author of a good work should refrain from three things—from putting his name, save very modestly, from the epistle dedicatory, and from the preface. Others should refrain from ...
— Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary • Voltaire

... Belgium if England would stay out of the war. This was promptly declined. On August 2d the British cabinet agreed that if the German fleet attempted to attack the coast of France the British fleet would intervene. Germany, the next day, sent a note agreeing to refrain from naval attacks on France provided England would remain neutral, but declined to commit herself as to the neutrality of Belgium. Before this, however, on August 2d, Germany had announced to Belgium its intention to enter Belgium for the purpose of attacking France. The Belgian ...
— History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War • Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish

... the reputation of Messrs. Levy & Son really was, this last remark was a magnificent piece of cool impudence. Even Mr. Levy could not refrain from casting a quick glance of admiration at his junior, ...
— The New Tenant • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... the personality of the investigator. All that is needed is that an observer of life should be perfectly candid and sincere, that he should not speak in a spirit of vanity or self-glorification, that he should try to disentangle what are the real motives that make him act or refrain from acting. ...
— At Large • Arthur Christopher Benson

... relation came forward. "My dear sir," he began, "I shall have to ask you to refrain from attempting to intimidate the lady who is to be ...
— Suzanna Stirs the Fire • Emily Calvin Blake

... up a report for the emperor, deciding upon taking possession of Spain. "We must recommence the work of Louis XIV.," it said. "That which policy counsels, justice authorizes. The present circumstances do not permit your Majesty to refrain from intervention in the affairs of this kingdom. The King of Spain has been precipitated from his throne. Your Majesty is called upon to judge between the father and son: which part will you take? ...
— Worlds Best Histories - France Vol 7 • M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

... solemn and important prohibition—to refrain from all uncleanness caused by contact with death. Death is the wages of sin: the consecrated one was alike to keep aloof from sin and from ...
— Separation and Service - or Thoughts on Numbers VI, VII. • James Hudson Taylor

... before I came here, in regard to releasing them from the Audiencia—although, as I have said in other letters, I shall not enjoy this relief from the burden which is resting upon and is, in every way, irksome to all the people. I shall refrain from bringing forward this claim again, but I assure your Majesty that the Audiencia does more harm than good, as is manifest from the many arguments adduced in regard to this matter; and there is justice there ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XX, 1621-1624 • Various

... I got out of the window and escaped across the stream!" She had begun the explanation in her usual slightly independent tones, but before she had finished the thin pink lips trembled, and she could hardly refrain from crying. ...
— Jude the Obscure • Thomas Hardy

... in the unnumbered successions that have preceded us, has, in his turn, confronted the same facts, engaged in the same inquiry, and been swept from his attempts at a theoretic solution of the problem into the real solution itself, while the constant refrain in the song of existence sounded behind him, "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever." The evanescent phenomena, the tragic plot and scenery of human birth, action, and death, conceived on the scale ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... of moral and literary severity, to summarize, a critic can scarcely refrain from dismissing Byron with impatient contempt; nevertheless his genius and his in part splendid achievement are substantial facts. He stands as the extreme but significant exponent of violent Romantic individualism in a period when Romantic aspiration was largely disappointed ...
— A History of English Literature • Robert Huntington Fletcher

... the possibility of this,) refrain, carefully, from communicating with the police on the subject of the events of the day. The publicity that would follow would render you an object of derision, and no possible good could result to you from disclosure of the facts. But you should at once make up your mind never to participate ...
— Punchinello Vol. 1, No. 21, August 20, 1870 • Various

... to the piano, she began an accompaniment loud enough to crack the window-panes, singing at the same time the popular refrain of the ...
— Other People's Money • Emile Gaboriau

... While scarce from laughter could refrain, Thought that such youthful scenes of mirth To punishment could not give birth; Nor could he easily divine What was ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... to stop it. As Paula was carried fainting from the funeral procession of Blaesilla, her daughter, whispers such as these were audible in the crowd: "Is not this what we have often said? She weeps for her daughter, killed with fasting. How long must we refrain from driving these detestable monks out of Rome? Why do we not stone them or hurl them into the Tiber? They have misled this unhappy mother; that she is not a nun from choice is clear. No heathen ...
— A Short History of Monks and Monasteries • Alfred Wesley Wishart

... all, and suffers no career to be entirely free from its influence. Though a man be of so churlish and unsociable a nature as to loathe and shun the company of mankind, as we are told was the case with a certain Timon at Athens, yet even he cannot refrain from seeking some one in whose hearing he may disgorge the venom of his bitter temper. We should see this most clearly, if it were possible that some god should carry us away from these haunts of men, and place us somewhere ...
— Treatises on Friendship and Old Age • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... delaying in true native style, and I determined I should go to visit him. I have been very good not to go sooner; to live within a few miles of a rebel camp, to be a novelist, to have all my family forcing me to go, and to refrain all these months, counts for virtue. But hearing that several people had gone and the government done nothing to punish them, and having an errand there which was enough to justify myself in my own eyes, I half determined to go, and spoke of it with the half-caste priest. And here (confound ...
— Vailima Letters • Robert Louis Stevenson

... slapping his knees with his hands. I looked at his face, flushed crimson, and convulsively working, and felt very sorry for him at that instant especially. Encouraged by his success, Cucumber fell to capering about in a squatting position, singing the refrain of: 'Shildi-budildi!' and 'Natchiki-tchikaldi!' He stumbled at last with his nose in the dust.... The brigadier suddenly ceased laughing ...
— A Desperate Character and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... silken curtain, the folds of which hung a little awry. So strong was the merchant's interest in witnessing what was to ensue between the fair Polly and the gallant Feathertop that, after quitting the room, he could by no means refrain from peeping through the ...
— Mosses from an Old Manse and Other Stories • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... felt reckless and despairing—almost reckless enough to refrain from taking any steps to hinder the rats from returning to the box. It was my belief, that I must in the end succumb to this misfortune—must starve—and it was no use procrastinating my fate. I might as well die at once, ...
— The Boy Tar • Mayne Reid

... [)A][']tawasti[']y[)i]." He then repairs to some convenient spot with his paint, beads, and other paraphernalia and proceeds to adorn himself for the dance, which usually begins about an hour after dark, but is not fairly under way until nearly midnight. The refrain, y[^u]['][n]w[)e]h[)i], is probably sung while mixing the paint, and the other portion is recited while applying the pigment, or vice versa. Although these formula are still in use, the painting ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney

... grey-haired man to let me land, and then to the drunken captain to keep me aboard. I even bawled entreaties to the sailors. Montgomery said never a word, only shook his head. "You're going overboard, I tell you," was the captain's refrain. "Law be damned! I'm king here." At last I must confess my voice suddenly broke in the middle of a vigorous threat. I felt a gust of hysterical petulance, and went aft and ...
— The Island of Doctor Moreau • H. G. Wells

... say a very ugly word about Homer," said Miss Tredgold. "Sometimes I wish that I were a man in order that I might swear hard at you, Henry Dale. As I am a woman I must refrain. Do you know that your daughter Pauline, your daughter Briar, your daughter Patty, and your extraordinary daughter Penelope are all of them about as naughty children as they can be. Indeed, in the case of Pauline I consider her worse than naughty. What she has ...
— Girls of the Forest • L. T. Meade

... 'Sing the Refrain, pig! You could sing it once, in another jail. Sing it! Or, by every Saint who was stoned to death, I'll be affronted and compromising; and then some people who are not dead yet, had better have been stoned ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... thy tears refrain! When thou from honor didst depart It stabbed me to the very heart. Now through the slumber of the grave I go to God ...
— Faust • Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

... majesty. He then made a cursory inspection of the cargo, and perceived that the wealth would be fully answerable to expectation, and would be more than sufficient to content both the desires of the adventurers, and the fatigues and dangers of the captors. I cannot here refrain from acknowledging the great favour of God to our nation, by putting this rich prize into our hands, thereby manifestly discovering the secrets and riches of the trade of India, which had hitherto lain ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr

... not hear the low voice, for he was looking out over the canon and whistling the refrain of her song happily. A few moments later they swung out onto the very crest ...
— Riders of the Silences • John Frederick

... and peaceable chief of the Ute tribe who always counselled his people to refrain from war, but when he grew old the fiery spirits deposed him and went down to the plains to give battle to the Arapahoe. News came that they had been defeated in consequence of their rashness. Then the old man's sorrow was so keen that his heart broke. But ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner

... from any one. Try to remember too, that it is nothing wonderful to camp out or walk; and do not expect any one to think it is. We frequently meet parties of young folks walking through the mountains, who do great things with their tongues, but not much with their feet. If you will refrain from bragging, you can speak of your short marches ...
— How to Camp Out • John M. Gould

... Let us drink and laugh, Khorre. That organist lies. Sing something for me, Khorre—you sing well. In your hoarse voice I hear the creaking of ropes. Your refrain is like a sail that is torn by the storm. ...
— The Crushed Flower and Other Stories • Leonid Andreyev

... certainly so. Well, by the grace of God, it shall be so no longer; I will try somewhat more. So looking round about me, to see if I was quite alone, I stepped into an adjoining copse, and could scarce refrain falling on my knees, till I came to a proper place for kneeling in. I then poured forth my whole soul and spirit to God; and all my strength, and every member, every faculty was to the utmost employed, for a considerable time, in the most agreeable as well as useful duty. I would indeed have ...
— Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) • Robert Paltock

... the two friends were earnestly discussing whether they should get more bags of money, or should refrain from making further thefts. Zaragoza suggested that they would better first get in touch with the secret deliberations of the court before making another attempt. Luis, however, as if called by fate, insisted that they should make one more visit to the king's cellar, ...
— Filipino Popular Tales • Dean S. Fansler

... moment in venting the severest reproaches against me. "What hinders me," he exclaimed, "from taking one of the green cords, and fitting it, if not to your neck, to your back?" This threat I took in very ill part. "Refrain," I cried, "from such words, even from such thoughts; for otherwise you and your mistresses will be lost."—" Who, then, are you," he asked in defiance, "who dare speak thus?"—"A favorite of the gods," I said, "on whom it depends whether those ladies shall ...
— Autobiography • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

... garden, close to the quiet house, I sit thinking of that strange meeting in the village. A blackbird at regular intervals sings the same refrain, which is taken up by others in the distance. The lily's chalice gleams under the blazing sun; and the humbler flowers meekly droop their heads. White butterflies are everywhere, flitting restlessly hither and thither. So fierce is the splendour of the day that I cannot raise my eyes to the ...
— The Choice of Life • Georgette Leblanc

... spirit of forbearance is injurious to every interest, that of humanity included? Amidst the violence of excited passions this generous and fraternal feeling has been sometimes disregarded; and standing as I now do before my countrymen, in this high place of honor and of trust, I can not refrain from anxiously invoking my fellow-citizens never to be deaf to its dictates. Perceiving before my election the deep interest this subject was beginning to excite, I believed it a solemn duty fully to make known my sentiments in regard to it, and now, when every motive for misrepresentation ...
— U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses • Various

... refrain from laughing when one sees him make that hare's face. We went to playing with bits of wood: he possesses an extraordinary skill at making towers and bridges, which seem to stand as though by a miracle, and he works at it quite seriously, with the patience of a man. Between one tower and another ...
— Cuore (Heart) - An Italian Schoolboy's Journal • Edmondo De Amicis

... cemetery, which had been consecrated by the dust of so many great poets, but of which the doors were closed against all that remained of Byron. We well remember that, on that day, rigid moralists could not refrain from weeping for one so young, so illustrious, so unhappy, gifted with such rare gifts and tried by such strong temptations. It is unnecessary to make any reflections. The history carries its moral with it. Our age has indeed been fruitful of warnings to the eminent, and of consolation to the ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Vol. V (of X) - Great Britain and Ireland III • Various

... the Duke, standing open with a welcome, a trim roadway edged with bush and tree. Into it Nan and Gilian walked, almost heedless, it might seem, of each other's presence, she plucking wild flowers as she went from bush to bush, humming the refrain of the fishers' songs, he with his eyes wide open looking straight before him yet with some vague content to have her there for ...
— Gilian The Dreamer - His Fancy, His Love and Adventure • Neil Munro

... circumstance which reinstated me in the good opinion of the young girls was, that having brushed my hair unusually far out of my face, a white space became visible. The girls all cried out simultaneously, quite surprised and delighted: "Hun er quit" (she is white). I could not refrain from laughing, and bared my arm to prove to them that I did not belong to ...
— Visit to Iceland - and the Scandinavian North • Ida Pfeiffer

... rock, and her face dropped into her hands. She trembled violently. Somehow all at once, and for the first time in her life, there was borne in upon her a feeling of awful desolation and loneliness. She was alone—she was alone—she was alone that was the refrain ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... curious instinct which prompts most people to rub a thing in that makes the lot of the average convert an unhappy one. Only the very self-controlled can refrain from improving the occasion and scoring off the convert. Most leap ...
— Mike • P. G. Wodehouse

... slippers (the wonderfullest little shoes with wonderful tall red heels, Esmond pounced upon one as it fell close beside him), and she put on the drollest little moue, and marched up and down the room holding Esmond's cane by way of taper. Serious as her mood was, Lady Castlewood could not refrain from laughing; and as for Esmond he looked on with that delight with which the sight of this fair creature always inspired him: never had he seen any woman so arch, so brilliant, ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... so, and he is a philosopher, I think I had better follow his advice. If you don't mind, Jeanne, I will cherish no ambition beyond your love, and refrain from running after any increase in wealth or reputation which might prove a decrease in happiness. If you agree, Jeanne, we shall see little of society, and much of our friends; we shall not open our windows wide ...
— The Ink-Stain, Complete • Rene Bazin

... Markheim could not refrain from smiling with a kind of bitter triumph. "No," said he, "I will take nothing at your hands; if I were dying of thirst, and it was your hand that put the pitcher to my lips, I should find the courage to refuse. It may be credulous, but I will do ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 8 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson



Words linked to "Refrain" :   teetotal, stand by, tra-la, avoid, help, forbear, act, song, leave, fast, let it go, save, abstain, leave alone, hold back, sit out, tra-la-la, desist, spare, leave behind



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