To hold back; to restrain; to keep from action. My son - refrain thy foot from their path. Proverbs 1:15. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by. Genesis 45:1.

To forbear; to abstain; to keep one’s self from action or interference. Refrain from these men and let them alone. Acis 5:38.

The burden of a song; a kind of musical repetition.