From Middle English referren, from Old French referer, from Latin referre. The noun (used in journalism) is from the verb. Doublet of relate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.
Meanings
A blurb on the front page of a newspaper issue or section that refers the reader to the full story inside the issue or section by listing its slug or headline and its page number.
A refer on page 1 of the Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2015, edition of The Herald-News contained incorrect information about the story “Neighbors at odds over Joliet liquor license” that appeared on Page 4 of the same edition. 2015 August 5, “Corrections”, in The Herald-News, Joliet, Illinois: Shaw Media, via Issuu, page 2:
The paper of Sept. 11 was not without its alarms. On Page One, an ominous “refer” (pronounced reefer) to an article inside the paper: Palestinian snipers had killed two Israelis, bringing a retaliatory shelling by Israeli tanks. On A3: A suicide bomber had killed two police officers in Istanbul. 2021 September 10, Ralph Blumenthal, “A Time Capsule in Two Front Pages”, in The New York Times, New York City:
Looking at the refers on page 2, it's obvious that May became something of an accidental women's issue. 2017 May 14, Amanda May Aruani, “Letter from the Editor”, in The Arts Paper, New Haven, Connecticut: The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, via Issuu, archived from the original on 12 Sep 2021, page 3:
From Middle English referren, from Old French referer, from Latin referre. The noun (used in journalism) is from the verb. Doublet of relate. See also infer, collate and confer, delate and defer, as well as prelate and prefer among others.
Meanings
(transitive) To direct the attention of (someone toward something).
The shop assistant referred me to the help desk on ground floor.
(transitive) To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere.
The doctor may refer patients to a psychiatrist.
I'll refer the objections back to management for reconsideration.
He referred the matter to the principal.
(transitive) 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.
The Nandi of British East Africa tell a story in which the origin of death is referred to the ill-humour of a dog, who brought the tidings of immortality to men, but, not being received with the deference due to so august an embassy, he changed his tune in a huff and doomed mankind to the sad fate to which they have ever since been subject. 1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 54:
He referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.
(intransitive) To mention (something); to direct attention (to something).
To explain the problem, the teacher referred to an example in another textbook.
She became disrespectfully referred to locally as the "Crab" on account of her extraordinary manoeuvrability. 1956 February, R. C. Riley, “The Lymington Railway and Isle of Wight Ferry”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:
Her counsel has complained of the charge of the judge, as unprecedented, an innovation on our rules of practice, misconstructive of the true meaning of the law, and referring to laws not applicable to the sale. 1854, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana, page 444:
Nonetheless, for many years afterward, she was often referred to as maharani, though that eventually gave way to the less glamorous but more respectful title of rajmata, the equivalent of queen mother. 2009 July 31, Bruce Weber, “Gayatri Devi, 90, a Maharani and a Lawmaker, Dies”, in The New York Times:
A provision of law may not be construed as requiring a new grant to be awarded to a specified non-Federal Government entity unless that provision of law (1) specifically refers to this subsection; specifically identifies the particular non-Federal Government entity involved; and (3) specifically states that the award to that entity is required by such provision of law in contravention of the policy set forth in subsection (a). 1994, Congress of the United States, United States Statutes at Large, volume 108, part 4:
All hanar have two names. The Face Name is known to the world; the Soul Name is kept for use among close friends and relations. Hanar never refer to themselves in the first person in conversation with someone they know on a Face Name basis. To do so is considered egotistical, so instead they refer to themselves as "this one", or the impersonal "it". 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Hanar Codex entry:
(intransitive, stative) To make reference to; to be about; to relate to; to regard; to allude to.
The recipe referred to several unusual ingredients.
To be referential to another element in a sentence.
(intransitive) To point to either a specific location in computer memory or to a specific object.
In C, the pointer obtained by &a refers to the variable a.
Hence, the precise number of bytes to which the pointer refers to is not known. The compiler must know the number of bytes to which a pointer refers to in order to apply dereference operation 2010 September 14, Ajay Mittal, Programming In C: A Practical Approach, Pearson Education India, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 201:
(transitive) To require to resit an examination.
Smith's marks in the finals were unsatisfactory and he was referred.
(intransitive, of a term or name) To have the meaning of, to denote.
In programming, a "memory leak" refers to a situation where memory is or stays unnecessarily allocated.
The basic idea is that two sets A and B have the same cardinality if there is a bijection from A to B. Since the domain and range of the bijection is not relevant here, we often refer to a bijection from A to B as a bijection between the sets, or a one-to-one correspondence between the elements of the sets. 2013, William F. Basener, Topology and Its Applications, unnumbered page:
The nickname "Big Apple" refers to the city of New York.
(transitive) To cause (pain) to be felt elsewhere.
Inferior head refers pain to the TMJ area and the superior head refers pain to the zygomatic area. 2021, Ravikiran Ongole et al., Textbook of Oral Medicine, Oral Diagnosis and Oral Radiology, page 206:
The gluteus medius and minimus muscles are important hip abductors […] TrPs in these muscles may produce local pain … or may refer pain down the posterior or lateral thigh and leg … 2015, César Fernández-de-las-Peñas, Joshua Cleland, Jan Dommerholt, Manual Therapy for Musculoskeletal Pain Syndromes, page 726
(of the sensation of pain) To apparently relocate; to be felt in another place than where it is actually caused.
Pain from the hip often refers to the knee. 2007, Donald E. Greydanus, Arthur N. Feinberg, Dilip R. Patel, The Pediatric Diagnostic Examination, page 316:
cmn 談到 /谈到 (to direct to a source for help or information) · pt encaminhar (to direct to a source for help or information) · ru относи́ть (to direct to a source for help or information) · ru отнести́ (to direct to a source for help or information) · pt encaminhar (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · ja 問い合わせる (to direct to a source for help or information) · de sich auf etwas beziehen (to allude to) · bg позовавам се (to direct the attention of) · sv hänvisa (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · fi neuvoa (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · hu hivatkozik (to allude to) · it riferire (to direct to a source for help or information) · pt referir (to allude to) · gl referir (to direct to a source for help or information) · bg приписвам (to allude to) · id mengarahkan (to direct the attention of) · ary كَيْنْعَّتْ (to direct to a source for help or information) · pl skierować (to direct to a source for help or information) · nl verwijzen (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · ru сосла́ться (to direct to a source for help or information) · pl odesłać (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · eo rilati (to allude to) · es estar relacionado con (to allude to) · nl verwijzen (to allude to) · cs odkázat (to direct to a source for help or information) · uk посла́тися (to direct to a source for help or information) · fi ohjata (to direct the attention of) · pl skierować (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · da henvise (to allude to) · mi pare (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · pl odnosić się (to allude to) · uk посила́тися (to direct to a source for help or information) · ga tagair do (to allude to) · bg обръщам се (to direct to a source for help or information) · sv hänvisa (to direct to a source for help or information) · nl verwijzen (to direct the attention of) · fi ohjata (to direct to a source for help or information) · da henvise (to direct to a source for help or information) · tr zikretmek (to direct the attention of) · ru ссыла́ться (to direct to a source for help or information) · grc ἀποδίδωμι (to allude to) · hu vonatkozik (to allude to) · da referere (to allude to) · fi neuvoa (to direct to a source for help or information) · ary كَيْشِيرْ (to direct to a source for help or information) · el αναφέρω (to direct the attention of) · sv hänvisa (to direct the attention of) · sv åsyfta (to direct to a source for help or information) · fi viitata (to allude to) · pt mencionar (to allude to) · sv referera (to direct to a source for help or information) · de verweisen (to direct to a source for help or information) · fr renvoyer (à) (to allude to) · nl doorverwijzen (to direct to a source for help or information) · ca referir (to direct to a source for help or information) · sv syfta (to allude to) · enm deferren (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · fa ارجاعیدن (to direct to a source for help or information) · el παραπέμπω (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · es referirse a (to allude to) · fi ohjata (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · es remitir (to direct to a source for help or information) · fr référer (to direct to a source for help or information) · ko 언급하다 (to direct to a source for help or information) · ar أَشَارَ (to direct to a source for help or information) · ota ذكر ایتمك (to direct the attention of) · it fare capo (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · eo plusendi (to direct to a source for help or information) · bg отпращам (to direct to a source for help or information) · es referir (to direct to a source for help or information) · nl verwijzen (to direct to a source for help or information) · el παραπέμπω (to direct to a source for help or information) · pt remeter (to submit to an authority figure for consideration) · pt indicar (to submit to an authority figure for consideration)