Refrain Definition | What is Refrain? - PoetrySoup
Definition
[n] the part of a song where a soloist is joined by a group of singers
[v] choose to refrain; "I abstain from alcohol"
[v] not do something; "He refrained from hitting him back"; "she could not forbear weeping"
A refrain (from the Old French refraindre "to repeat," likely from Vulgar Latin refringere) is the line or lines that are repeated in poetry, usually after every stanza.
Example
For example, one version of the traditional ballad The Cruel Sister includes a refrain mid-verse: - There lived a lady by the North Sea shore,
- Lay the bent to the bonny broom
- Two daughters were the babes she bore.
- Fa la la la la la la la.
- As one grew bright as is the sun,
- Lay the bent to the bonny broom
- So coal black grew the other one.
- Fa la la la la la la la.
Synonyms
abstain, chorus, desist, forbear
Antonyms
act, consume, have, ingest, move, take, take in
See Also...
abstain, avoid, fast, help, help oneself, keep off, let it go, music, save, sit out, song, spare, stand by, teetotal, tra-la, tra-la-la
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