Refrain vs Avoid - What's the difference?
refrain | avoid |
(archaic) To hold back, to restrain (someone or something).
* Proverbs i:15 .
(reflexive, archaic) To show restraint; to hold oneself back.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts V:
*
* Bible, Proverbs i. 15
To stop oneself (from) some action or interference; to abstain.
* Bible, Acts v. 38
* Sir Thomas Browne
*
The chorus or burden of a song repeated at the end of each verse or stanza.
A much repeated comment, complaint, or saying.
To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.
:I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
*1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:
*:The devyllsayde unto hym: all these will I geve the, iff thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Jesus unto hym. Avoyde Satan.
*Milton
*:What need a man forestall his date of grief, / And run to meet what he would most avoid ?
*Macaulay
*:He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility.
*{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
, title= (obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
:(Wyclif)
To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
*Spenser
*:How can these grants of the king's be avoided ?
(legal) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
:(Blackstone)
(obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
:(Sir Thomas Browne)
(obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
*:
*:Anone they encountred to gyders / and he with the reed shelde smote hym soo hard that he bare hym ouer to the erthe / There with anone came another Knyght of the castel / and he was smyten so sore that he auoyded his fadel
*Francis Bacon
*:Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room.
(obsolete) To get rid of.
:(Shakespeare)
(obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
(obsolete) To become void or vacant.
As verbs the difference between refrain and avoid
is that refrain is to hold back, to restrain (someone or something) while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.As a noun refrain
is the chorus or burden of a song repeated at the end of each verse or stanza.refrain
English
Etymology 1
From a combination of (etyl) refraindre, (etyl) refreindre (from (etyl) refrangere), and (etyl) refrener, (etyl) refrener (from (etyl) refrenare).Verb
(en verb)- Refrain thy foot from their path.
- And nowe I saye unto you: refrayne youreselves from these men, and let them alone [...].
- his reson aperceyueth it wel that it is synne / agayns the lawe of god / and yet his reson / refreyneth nat his foul delit or talent.
- Refrain thy foot from their path.
- Refrain from these men, and let them alone.
- They refrained therefrom [eating flesh] some time after.
- Who, requiring a remedy for his gout, received no other counsel than to refrain cold drink.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) refrain, from the (etyl) verb . See refract and the verb refrain.Noun
(wikipedia refrain) (en noun)- We hear the wild refrain . Whittier.
References
*Anagrams
* ----avoid
English
Verb
England 1-0 Ukraine, passage=England could have met world and European champions Spain but that eventuality was avoided by Sweden's 2-0 win against France, and Rooney's first goal in a major tournament since scoring twice in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon at Euro 2004.}}