name, noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Clipping of referee. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal
2. 2
   Initialism of row echelon form. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
3. 3
   (sports) the chief official (as in boxing or American football) who is expected to ensure fair play wordnet
4. 4
   Abbreviation of reference. abbreviation, alt-of
5. 5
   Abbreviation of reference.; Abbreviation of refsheet. abbreviation, alt-of

Show 2 more definitions

6. 6
   Abbreviation of refectory. abbreviation, alt-of
7. 7
   Clipping of refrigerator. Philippines, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal

   "Please close the ref."

Verb

1. 1
   To referee; to act as a referee in a sport or game. ambitransitive, informal

   "On the block when we were growing up we called him Ronnie the Enforcer because he umped all the stickball games and reffed the hockey."

Proper Noun

1. 1
   Initialism of Research Excellence Framework: a system for assessing the quality of research in higher-education institutions. UK, abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
2. 2
   A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms

refereereferee

Example

More examples

"The ref is going to end the game in two minutes."

Etymology

Clippings.

Related phrases

work the refs

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.