Refrain

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈfɹeɪn/

Definitions

1. To hold oneself back from doing something or to stop oneself from taking a particular action
2. To consciously avoid engaging in a specific action or to intentionally decide against performing a given behavior
3. To exercise self-restraint by choosing not to undertake an action or by abstaining from a particular behavior

Etymology: The verb and the noun "refrain" look like relatives, but they came into English by different routes. The verb is the older of the two in English: it descends from Latin "refrenare", meaning to bridle or check, built from "re-" and "frenum", a bridle. Its literal sense is the reins on a horse, so to refrain is, at root, to pull yourself up short, as a rider does with a horse's mouth. Middle English took the word through Anglo-Norman and Old French "refrener", and it kept that sense of restraint. The noun is a separate borrowing. It came from French "refrain", the repeated line of a song, which traces back to the Old French verb "refraindre", meaning to break off or to repeat. Its Latin ancestor is "frangere", to break, so the chorus is literally a line that breaks back into the tune. The two words meet only by accident of spelling: one is about holding back, the other about returning, and they share a shape that hides the difference.

Synonyms: abstain, cease, desist, forbear, avoid

Antonyms: indulge, engage