referre‧fer /rɪˈfɜː $ -ɜːr/ ●●● S1 W1 verb (past tense and past participle referred, present participle referring) 
Word Origin Examples
We agreed never to refer to the matter again. Although she didn’t mention any names, everyone knew who she was referring to.refer to as He likes to be referred to as ‘Doctor Khee’.refer to by The hospital now refers to patients by name, not case number.GRAMMARYou always refer to someone or something: · He referred to my letter. ✗Don’t say: He referred about my letter. | He referred my letter.2to look at a book, map, piece of paper etc for information: He gave the speech without referring to his notes.3if a statement, number, report etc refers to someone or something, it is about that person or thing: The figures refer to our sales in Europe.4 refer somebody/something to somebody to send someone or something to a person or organization to be helped or dealt with: My doctor is referring me to a dermatologist. My complaint was referred to the manufacturers.5refer somebody to something formal to tell someone where to find information: Readers are referred to the bibliography for further information.
Word OriginWORD ORIGINrefer
Verb TableOrigin:
1300-1400 Latin referre ‘to bring back, report, refer’, from ferre ‘to carry’VERB TABLE
refer
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | refer |
| he, she, it | refers | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | referred |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have referred |
| he, she, it | has referred | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had referred |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will refer |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have referred |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am referring |
| he, she, it | is referring | |
| you, we, they | are referring | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was referring |
| you, we, they | were referring | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been referring |
| he, she, it | has been referring | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been referring |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be referring |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been referring |
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
Thesaurus- Did he refer to the high standards of social protection in this country?
- Only ten refer - usually more briefly - to their elderly parents, and only eight to their own ageing.
- The commanders can not actually see what Lord Raglan intends to refer to.
- The exemption you refer to certainly needs clarification.
- We shall therefore refer to it as the Fundamental Theorem of Vector Programming.
- What does all this refer to in the third sentence?
Longman Language Activatorto mention someone or something► mention
Collocations to say something about a person, plan, event etc, especially during a conversation, without giving any details or saying very much: · When you were talking to Barbara, did she mention her mother at all?· We didn't really discuss the price, but somebody mentioned a figure of £300.mention (that): · Eve mentioned that you might be looking for a temporary job.mention something to somebody: · She had started having nose bleeds, but when she mentioned this to her doctor, he told her not to worry.worth mentioning: · "Why didn't you tell me?" "It didn't seem worth mentioning."now (that) you mention it (=used to agree when someone has introduced a new subject): · Now that you mention it, I did think she was behaving a little strangely last night.mention something in passing (=mention something quickly, without spending much time on it): · Then he remembered that Liz had mentioned in passing that her father was a lawyer.
► refer to to say something about a person, plan, event etc in a conversation, speech, or piece of writing: · Although she didn't mention any names, everyone knew who she was referring to.· I apologized, and the matter was never referred to again.· I think what Mary was referring to earlier was her manager's inability to make the right decision.
► allude to formal to mention someone or something in a deliberately indirect way: · She has often alluded to a secret tragedy in her past.· When the director spoke of "major problems", I assumed that he was alluding to mechanical failures in the computer system.
► touch on to mention a subject or a fact during a speech, a lesson, a piece of writing etc, but without spending much time on it: · In my last lecture I touched on a number of important issues which I am now going to examine in some detail.
► throw in informal to mention something that is not closely connected with what you are saying, or that it is not necessary to mention: throw in something/throw something in : · He likes to throw in references to his days in the army.
► namedropping the practice of mentioning the names of famous or important people that you know or meet, in order to impress other people: · I hate the namedropping that is a feature of most autobiographies.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► also
Word family· The citations also refer to the provisions on which the measure is based.· We also refer to one factor of production as labor and to the other as capital.· Pyrenees may also refer to small ewes' milk cheeses that are produced in the same area.· Such brochures also refer to two other types of valuation or survey.· In some chapters the authors also refer back to earlier volumes in the series for a more detailed discussion of theoretical issues.· I also refer you to the Sub-Regional Engineer's letter reply of 2 March 1990.· Police in this country will also refer your friend to rape crisis centres and victim support agencies.· Flat-footed and high arches also refer to foot type.
► back· This saves them having to refer back and forth between their message and your answer.· Note the Heading and then refer back to the localiser.· Here, we can perhaps refer back to the discussion of graduate employment presented early in the chapter.· I refer back to my earlier remarks about classroom organisation.· In some chapters the authors also refer back to earlier volumes in the series for a more detailed discussion of theoretical issues.· Most of these refer back to the content of the video but repeat viewing is not suggested.· We will refer back to these examples later in the book.
► often· Advertisements for houses for sale often refer to their proximity to Buzz, Go and EasyJet destinations.· Students and teachers often refer to the academies as an extended family.· Writers often refer to uneven development between sectors, for example, or between firms within a sector.· It is interesting to note that we often refer to the training rather than education of language teachers.
► only· Yet these painted colours refer only rather loosely to the ten colour-terms listed in the text.· Instead. these people only refer to farmers when there is news like a food scare to react to.· The numbers refer only to mergers of large companies where assets worth over 5 are acquired through the merger.· Which need not refer only to Pericles, though the historian can not have forgotten him.· I will only refer to 2 projects in the short time available.· Estimates refer only to the cost of allocative inefficiency.· For the face as simulacrum can only refer us to yet another image, there being no true face behind the mask.· Such relations only refer to the name of the referenced module.
► please· Hotel Amenities Please refer to page 154 for a guide to the bedroom amenities and public facilities of the hotels featured here.· Please refer to the back cover of this brochure for more details.· Please refer to the individual hotel descriptions for full details.· Please refer to our tariff of charges for details of these services.· Please refer to the catalogue for the full range of products available.
► to· The first of these we might refer to as appraisal.· The last component of the rainbow coalition that I want to refer to is feminism.· The media are obviously hard up for stories because they seem interested in what they refer to as our overcrowding problems here.· The exemption you refer to certainly needs clarification.· The habitat I refer to, as you may have guessed, is the garden.· What does all this refer to in the third sentence?· This political response is what I refer to as labourism.· Secondly, it causes the lights to be surrounded by a ring of light, which I refer to as their halo.
NOUN► case· But he has now refused either to grant the long-expected pardon or refer the case back to the Court of Appeal.· Our discussion will refer particularly to the case in Fig. 24.2.· I refer to the case of Mustapha Akkawi, who was killed after being tortured in prison just over a week ago.· Attempts are also being made to refer the more difficult cases to foster families.· The judge refused to refer the case back to magistrates.· It can not refer to individual cases.
► dispute· Consider the case of two people who refer a dispute to an arbitrator.· Normal practice is to refer the matters in dispute to an independent accountant.
► friend· Police in this country will also refer your friend to rape crisis centres and victim support agencies.
► gentleman· I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.· I refer, gentlemen, to the developing decline and fall of the Galactic Empire.
► letter· The vendor should be required to refer in the disclosure letter to the reason why the documents have been disclosed.
► matter· I have no desire to rake over the past but we should have the right to refer to matters of historical record.· It was finally decided to refer the matter to the departmental assemblies.· The supervisor must then refer the matter to the court which may make an order cancelling or varying the treatment requirement.· You said that you would refer the matter to the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.· How can we refer this matter?· Of course, the parameters that determine the drop's energy refer to nuclear matter and not to any familiar liquid.· Normal practice is to refer the matters in dispute to an independent accountant.
► minister· The Minister refused to refer a complaint to the committee and the complainant sought mandamus.
► numbers· The numbers refer only to mergers of large companies where assets worth over 5 are acquired through the merger.· Real numbers refer to a mathematical idealization rather than to any actual physically objective quantity.· The numbers in her text refer to footnotes in which she spears the novelist with chapter and verse.· Numbers to the right of each row refer to the nucleotide position, numbers to the left refer to amino acids.· Page numbers refer to this brochure.· All mandibular numbers in the tables refer to half mandibles, as for maxillae.
► section· To rectify a problem you should refer to Section 6 - Design Change System.· This bizarre combat is a very dangerous one - refer to the Profiles section.· For further information on the Design Change System, refer to Section 6 of this manual.· For further information on Issues and Products, refer to Section 9 of this manual.· Both letters refer to a small section of between the end of the footway and the start of the flood bank proper.
► term· In the present context, we are using these terms to refer to phonetic characteristics of syllables.· The various terms refer to the types of oar used, or the number of strokers involved.· A joint communiqué issued after the meetings was couched in general terms and did not refer to the cessation of hostilities.· To what, then, might the term feminine economy refer?· Both terms refer to styles of depicting the arms of spouses on a single shield.· Using the terms that more accurately refer to the present career realities, these people have all turned themselves into businesses.· We shall use the term secondary radiation to refer to radiation coming from or absorbed in a plant.· These terms usually refer to a public company whose shares were bought up by a small group.
► word· I like to understand the meanings of words and always refer to a dictionary when I come on a new word.· To whom could her words refer?· We do not, for example, tend to have words which refer to both sentient beings and to events.· The primary significance of the words which refer to the bread seems to belong to the image of the messianic kingdom.· Formerly, the Anglo-Saxon words were used to refer to both the meat and the animals.
VERB► use· In the present context, we are using these terms to refer to phonetic characteristics of syllables.· It can be used to refer to some one who is physically or temperamentally very ugly: a real MEESkait.· Strictly speaking, this should be used to refer to an auditory sensation experienced by the hearer.· These are later used to refer to specific citations in the text.· A demonstrative is used to refer to a temporal aspect.· It also explains how we can use a name to refer literally to things that bear that name.· In practice, the word seems to be used mostly to refer to animal sonar.· It was Adam Smith, interestingly, who first used industry to refer to manufacturing and other productive activities.
WORD FAMILYnounrefereereferencereferralverbreferrefereereferenceadjectivereferable
refer to somebody/something phrasal verb1to mention or speak about someone or something: We agreed never to refer to the matter again. Although she didn’t mention any names, everyone knew who she was referring to.refer to as He likes to be referred to as ‘Doctor Khee’.refer to by The hospital now refers to patients by name, not case number.GRAMMARYou always refer to someone or something: · He referred to my letter. ✗Don’t say: He referred about my letter. | He referred my letter.2to look at a book, map, piece of paper etc for information: He gave the speech without referring to his notes.3if a statement, number, report etc refers to someone or something, it is about that person or thing: The figures refer to our sales in Europe.4 refer somebody/something to somebody to send someone or something to a person or organization to be helped or dealt with: My doctor is referring me to a dermatologist. My complaint was referred to the manufacturers.5refer somebody to something formal to tell someone where to find information: Readers are referred to the bibliography for further information.