Definition of "refer" in English

verb

1. (transitive) To direct the attention of (someone toward something)

   • The shop assistant referred me to the help desk on ground floor.

2. (transitive) To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere.

   • He referred the matter to the principal.
   • The doctor may refer patients to a psychiatrist.
   • I'll refer the objections back to management for reconsideration.

3. (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.

   • He referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.

4. (intransitive) To mention (something); to direct attention (to something)

   • To explain the problem, the teacher referred to an example in another textbook.

5. (intransitive, stative) To make reference to; to be about; to relate to; to regard; to allude to.

   • The recipe referred to several unusual ingredients.

6. (grammar) To be referential to another element in a sentence.

7. (intransitive, programming) To point to either a specific location in computer memory or to a specific object. [with to]

   • In C, the pointer obtained by &a refers to the variable a.

8. (transitive, education) To require to resit an examination.

   • Smith's marks in the finals were unsatisfactory and he was referred.

9. (intransitive, of a term or name) To have the meaning of, to denote.

   • The nickname "Big Apple" refers to the city of New York.
   • In programming, a "memory leak" refers to a situation where memory is or stays unnecessarily allocated.

noun

1. (journalism) 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.