REFRAIN Copy link • REFRAINTransitively, To check, restrain, Vid: Intransitively, abstinere or se abstinere ab aliqua re: se continere ab aliqua re (to keep one’s self back from): temperare sibi, quominus: temperare (sibi) ab aliqua re (not to seize upon, to abstain from; ☞ not temperare alicui rei, which is = to set measure or bounds to anything; Vid: Krüger, § 359: temperare aliqua re is not a Latin construction; for in Liv., 32, 34, 3, risu is the dative): parcere alicui rei (to spare; e.g., ut neque lamentis neque exsecrationibus parceretur, Liv., 8, 7, 21; parco nominibus viventium, I refrain from mentioning the names of persons now alive, Quint., 3, 1, 21). To refrain from food, se abstinere cibo; a (quibusdam) cibis temperare: to refrain from fighting, supersedere proelio or pugna: to refrain from tears, lacrimas tenere; temperare a lacrimis († Verg., Aen., 2, 8; whereas temperare lacrimis, Liv., 30, 20, 1 = to moderate one’s tears): to refrain from laughter, risum tenere or continere: to refrain from intercourse with anybody, alicujus aditum sermonemque defugere: not to be able to refrain, sibi temperare or se continere non posse, quin; a se non impetrare posse, quin: to be scarcely able to refrain from, vix se continere posse, quin etc.; vix temperare sibi posse, quin, etc.; vix comprimor, quin, etc. (Plaut., Mostellaria, 1, 3, 46).