All 4 Uses

refrain
in
Middlemarch
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But he felt his neck under Bulstrode's yoke; and though he usually enjoyed kicking, he was anxious to refrain from that relief.†
Chpt 2 *
"Is he quite gone away?" said Mrs. Bulstrode, anxiously but for certain reasons she refrained from adding, "It was very disagreeable to hear him calling himself a friend of yours."†
Chpt 6
Though, in deference to her masculine advisers, she had refrained from what Sir James had called "interfering in this Bulstrode business," the hardship of Lydgate's position was continually in her mind, and when Bulstrode applied to her again about the hospital, she felt that the opportunity was come to her which she had been hindered from hastening.†
Chpt 8
Dorothea refrained from saying what was in her mind—how well she knew that there might be invisible barriers to speech between husband and wife.†
Chpt 8 *

Definitions:

(1) (refrain as in: a repeated refrain)
something repeated regularly -- especially a word, phrase, line, or idea repeated in music, poetry, or speech
(2) (refrain as in: refrain from laughing)
to stop oneself from doing something -- especially something tempting, impulsive, or inappropriate
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)