You searched for: “refer
refer (ri FUHR) (verb), refers; referred; referring
1. To direct to a source for help or information, to send: After completing the forms, Irene was referred to the personnel director.
2. To assign or to attribute to; to mention: The writer referred to the history book to make his point.
3. To hand over, to submit, to deliver, or to transmit and pass along: Willie referred the supervisor's proposal to the board of directors for consideration.

James wants Greg to look at the headlines that refer to the deluge and devastation caused by the flood waters.

4. To turn, to go to, or to consult: Max was told to refer to the last page of the book for the answers to the quiz that he took to increase his vocabulary skills.

Although "allude" and refer are synonyms, their connotations and proper applications are quite different.

To refer to someone or something is to mention directly with specific identification.

Allude means to mentioning something indirectly or briefly in passing, to hint at; for example: Sharon has alluded to her husband during conversations, but she has never given her friends any details about him.

This entry is located in the following unit: -fer, -ferous (page 6)
(a suffix which forms nouns that refer to people who regularly engage in some activity, or who are characterized in a certain way, as indicated by the stem or root of the word; originally, which appeared in Middle English in words from Old French where it expressed an intensive degree or with a pejorative or disparaging application)
(Latin: lentil-shaped, lentil; a term later used to refer to "the lentil-shaped lens of the eye")
(Latin: foot, feet; people often see this ped element in other words. When people refer to "pedal extremities", they mean "feet". When anyone pushes the pedals of a bicycle, it is done with the feet. A pedestrian must use the feet for walking. A quadruped has four feet while a centipede has "100 feet"; or a large number of them because it may be impossible to count all of them.)
(Greek: wood; the first element of various scientific and technical words that refer to wood)
Word Entries containing the term: “refer
refer back
This entry is located in the following unit: Pleonasms or Tautological Redundancies (page 18)