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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

refret en · VERB · etymology 1

Etymology

From re- + fret.

Meanings

  1. (transitive) To replace the frets on (a musical instrument).
    • Can you refret my guitar?

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
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

  1. (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:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
refrayt alternative lexicographic
refraid alternative lexicographic
refreite alternative lexicographic
refrayde alternative lexicographic
refrette alternative lexicographic
refrets Number=Plur lexicographic
refreyd alternative lexicographic