- 1
To direct the attention of (someone toward something).transitive
- The shop assistant referred me to the help desk on ground floor.
- 2
To submit to (another person or group) for consideration; to send or direct elsewhere.transitive
- He referred the matter to the principal.
- The doctor may refer patients to a psychiatrist.
- 3
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.transitive
- He referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.
- 4
To mention (something); to direct attention (to something).intransitive
- To explain the problem, the teacher referred to an example in another textbook.
- 5
To make reference to; to be about; to relate to; to regard; to allude to.intransitivestative
- The recipe referred to several unusual ingredients.
- 6
To be referential to another element in a sentence.
- 7
To point to either a specific location in computer memory or to a specific object.intransitive
- In C, the pointer obtained by &a refers to the variable a.
- 8
To require to resit an examination.transitive
- Smith's marks in the finals were unsatisfactory and he was referred.
- 9
To have the meaning of, to denote.intransitive
- 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.
- 10
To cause (pain) to be felt elsewhere.transitive
- 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 …
syn. delegate · direct