Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To revive or reinvigorate, as with rest, food, or drink.
  • intransitive verb To renew by stimulation.
  • intransitive verb To make cool, clean, or moist; freshen up.
  • intransitive verb To fill up again; replenish.
  • intransitive verb Electronics To renew (the image on a display screen), as by renewing the flow of electrons from the cathode-ray tube.
  • intransitive verb To update (the information displayed on a screen), as to reflect the most recent changes to a webpage being viewed.
  • intransitive verb To maintain (data in a dynamic RAM) by sending a new electric pulse to recharge the chips.
  • intransitive verb To take refreshment.
  • intransitive verb To become fresh again; revive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of refreshing; refreshment.
  • To make fresh or as if new again; freshen; improve; restore; repair; renovate.
  • To make fresh or vigorous again; restore vigor or energy to; give new strength to; reinvigorate; recreate or revive after fatigue, privation, pain, or the like; reanimate.
  • To steep and soak, particularly vegetables, in pure water with a view to restore their fresh appearance.
  • To become fresh or vigorous again; revive; become reanimated or reinvig-orated.
  • To take refreshment, as food or drink.
  • To lay in a fresh stock of provisions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The act of refreshing.
  • transitive verb To make fresh again; to restore strength, spirit, animation, or the like, to; to relieve from fatigue or depression; to reinvigorate; to enliven anew; to reanimate.
  • transitive verb To make as if new; to repair; to restore.
  • transitive verb to quicken or strengthen it, as by a reference, review, memorandum, or suggestion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To renew or revitalize.
  • verb computing To reload a webpage on the internet.
  • verb computing To cause (a web browser or similar software) to refresh its display.
  • verb To perform the periodic energizing required to maintain the contents of computer memory, the display luminance of a computer screen, etc.
  • noun The periodic energizing required to maintain the contents of computer memory, the display luminance of a computer screen, etc.
  • noun computing The update of a display (in a web browser or similar software) to show the latest version of the data.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb refresh one's memory
  • verb make fresh again
  • verb become or make oneself fresh again
  • verb make (to feel) fresh

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English refresshen, from Old French refreschir : re-, re- + fres, fresche, fresh (of Germanic origin).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French refrescher (French: rafraîchir)

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Examples

  • * refresh and decide I don't care, but to dispense with the dumb "* refresh*" thing*

    natinski Diary Entry natinski 2001

  • The solution is to ask the programmer to make the label refresh on every change of the list box value, and to add a dynamic context to the label's message (using inContext method of KLocalizedString).

    KDE TechBase - Recent changes [en] 2010

  • The solution is to ask the programmer to make the label refresh on every change of the list box value, and to add a '' dynamic context '' to the label's message

    KDE TechBase - Recent changes [en] 2010

  • While we don’t know for sure when an iPhone refresh is coming, it’s a safe bet that all will be revealed in mid-June at Apple’s developers conference.

    Palm Should Go All In With Its Pre Marketing 2009

  • Maybe the screen refresh is throwing off my mental comprehension processes?

    Starve a Bookworm, Save a Tree: The Pros and Cons of Going Paperless 2008

  • Just plain refresh isn't good enough today, apparently.

    November 23rd, 2008 ceciliatan 2008

  • The thought of water, starting in some river or reservoir, traveling through a treatment plant run by god knows who with god knows what problems and conditions, running through miles of pipe laid by grubby plumber hands, corroding over the years, and finally dripping out the sponge-wiped end of a faucet to then wash or refresh is too much for him.

    Relatively Speaking... deep_bluze 2005

  • The 2009 model year brought a few tweaks to exterior styling, interior upgrades, a higher redline and a slight bump in fuel economy, a midterm refresh to the current generation born in 2006.

    Boston Business News - Local Boston News | Boston Business Journal 2010

  • In August, eMarketer predicted that the market for online video spending would hit a five-year percentage growth HP Mini-Note: rebates, larger display tipping off near-term refresh?

    NewTeeVee 2008

  • And after you've clicked on several blog posts, look at the top of the row of blog posts and click on the blue button that says "refresh" - that will refresh the page and only list blog posts you haven't read yet.

    02/22/2007 2007

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