Refrain vs Contain - What's the difference?
refrain | contain |
(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.
(lb) To hold inside.
*
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (lb) To include as a part.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-21, volume=411, issue=8884, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (lb) To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
*
To have as an element.
To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.
* Bible, vii. 9.
As verbs the difference between refrain and contain
is that refrain is to hold back, to restrain (someone or something) while contain is to hold inside.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
* ----contain
English
Verb
(en verb)- At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
Welcome to the plastisphere, passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria,
Subtle effects, passage=Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.}}
- The king's person contains the unruly people from evil occasions.
- Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.
- Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.
- But if they can not contain , let them marry.