Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
refret en · VERB · etymology 1
Etymology
From re- + fret.
Meanings
(transitive) To replace the frets on (a musical instrument).
Can you refret my guitar?
Forms
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Source
refretting
Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
refretted
Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part
lexicographic
refretted
Tense=Past
lexicographic
refrets
Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres
lexicographic
refret en · NOUN · etymology 2
Etymology
From Middle English refreit, from Anglo-Norman refreit (“response”), refraindre (“to sing a refrain”); also Old French refreit (“refrain”). The Oxford English Dictionary suggests influence from an unattested Late Latin form, refrangere; compare Latin refractus (past participle). See refrain (noun), refract.
Meanings
(obsolete) A refrain.
Our old English term refrette, ‘the foote of the dittie, a verse often interlaced, or the burden of a song,’ was probably from refrain; or from refresteler, to pipe over again. […] ‘Refrain, the refret, burthen, or downe of a ballad.’ All this discussion is rendered necessary, because Steevens unfortunately forgot to note from whence he made the following extract, 1820, Samuel Weller Singer, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Prince of Denmark, page 136:
The refret or burden of the song in ver. 6, 8, 9, 10, “Yet have ye not returned to me,”[…] alludes to Deut. iv. 29(30), 1847, E.W. Hengstenberg, translated by J.E. Ryland, Dissertations on the Genuineness of the Pentateuch, volume 1, page 143: