1925 Monist 35 427 By the referend is meant that to which the judgment refers.

1940 Kenyon Rev. 269 The monosign is referential in the sense that what it means, its referend, is something distinct from itself.

1957 S. Potter Mod. Ling. vii. 141 The bird, the living creature that we see with our eyes, we may call the referend.

1977 Word 28 162 The auxiliary is invariably present when the referend is not the subject of the clause.

2007 P. Burton Lang. in Confessions of Augustine iii. 70 These are special areas of the language where there is assumed to be a particularly intimate link between word and referend.

1899 Sunday Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) 10 Dec. 4/4 Great political parties have promised..that they would give these dear voters a chance to ‘referend’ a little, if they wanted to.

1910 W. S. Churchill in Times 10 Dec. 8/3 It is a General Election, which is a greater and more effective appeal to the country and to the electorate than any Referendum can be... And there is no doubt about the result. The Veto of the House of Lords has been referended. (Laughter.)

1911 Rep. Supreme Court S. Dakota 25 9 Senate Bill 95,..duly referended as provided by the Constitution of the state of South Dakota, favourably voted upon, and now..in force.

1981 N.Y. Times 5 Oct. a16/2 The Republican speakers do not say they will ‘refer’ the Democratic reapportionment package to the voters; they say they are going to ‘referend’ it.

2006 Lima (Ohio) News (Nexis) 25 Aug. b2 There's been a lot of discussion about it [sc. a local tax proposal] in town, and a lot of people are upset about it... Some people even said they would referend it, so we figured, let the residents vote.