1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin vii. 391 If it were conuenient that in one selfe matter, the counsels and opinions of men might be referred to voyces doubtfull, I confesse my aduise shoulde haue no other reference [Fr. ie ne rendrois point le mien en vn autre bussole].

1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xix. 189 Epitropis, or the Figure of Reference. This manner of speech is vsed when..hauing said inough already, we referre the rest to their consideration.

1609 S. Daniel Civile Wares (rev. ed.) viii. lv. 217 We will our selfe take time to heare Your Cause at large: wherein we wil you haue No other reference, but repaire to vs.

a1675 B. Whitelocke Memorials Eng. Affairs (1682) anno 1655 605/2 All other References shall be determined by the Masters of the Chancery in Ordinary, which shall be only six in number.

1678 W. Wycherley Plain-dealer (ed. 2) iii. i Art thou a solicitor in chancery, and offer a reference?

1727 D. Defoe Compl. Eng. Tradesman II. i. xii. 288 When two Tradesmen of this pacifick Temper meet, a Reference never fails to put an End to all Disputes between them.

1762 G. G. Beekman Let. 1 May in Beekman Mercantile Papers (1956) 410 The under Writers..say that..they Are in nowise Liable to Pay any Part of those Charges..however if you think Otherwise it must be Left to Referance.

1834 Penny Cycl. II. 251/1 If the arbitrator refuses or ceases to act, the reference is at an end.

1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 484/1 It would be impossible to specify every head of reference to the Masters.

1863 H. Cox Inst. Eng. Govt. i. vii. 71 In some instances the peerage has been allowed without reference to the House of Lords.

1920 Act 10 & 11 George V c. 67 § i The standing orders..shall require reference of the draft order to a committee of the Council.

1971 H. Macmillan Riding Storm iv. 125 The opposition continued to demand the immediate reference of the whole dispute to the United Nations.

2004 A. Redfern et al. Law & Pract. Internat. Commerc. Arbitration (2005) iv. 4-07 Many shipping contracts contain a Centrocon clause, which provides for the reference of disputes to arbitration.

1681 J. Dalrymple Inst. Law Scotl. i. vii. § 9 77 When the right of any thing is referred to the havers Oath, and he sweareth it to be his own, though thereafter it may be made palpably appear, not to be so, yet it will not be Restored, because of the owners reference, implying that condition, that he shall stand to the Oath.

1752 A. McDouall Inst. Laws Scotl. II. iv. xxxii. 655 This reference to the deferrors oath will not be allowed if it is done invidiously or fraudulently.

1797 Encycl. Brit. IX. 714/1 The reference is a virtual contract between the litigants.

1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scotl. 371 It appears even to be doubtful whether the deposition of the bankrupt on reference to his oath..will be admitted as good evidence in favour of the referrer.

1853 Act 16 Vict. c. 20 §5 The adducing of any party as a witness..shall not have the effect of a reference to the oath of the party so adduced.

1930 Encycl. Laws Scotl. X. 396 A reference to oath, when the Court has interponed authority and when the party whose oath is referred has appeared and deponed, forms a judicial contract between the parties.

1975 Session Cases 317 For the defender it was contended that he was at least entitled to have a reference to the manager's oath, of the actual payments made to him for the goods supplied.

1995 Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act c. 7 §11(2) The procedure of proving any matter in any civil proceedings by reference to oath is hereby abolished.

1581 T. Newton tr. M. Luther Comm. Epist. St. Peter & St. Jude f. 111^v I take that place, as I also doe this present sentence of S. Peter, to haue reference to all maner of persones indifferently, and without respecte.

1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 57 In euery enterprise [sc. Resolution]..hath..a regard to worth, a respect to assurance, and a reference to the end.

a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) i. iii. 126 Ros. What will you by call'd? Cel. Something that hath a reference to my state. View more context for this quotation

a1641 R. Montagu Acts & Monuments (1642) 456 Man in this consideration stands in a two~fold respect and reference to God, publick and private.

a1704 T. Brown Ess. Satire Ancients in Wks. (1730) I. 14 Satura is an Adjective, which has Reference to a Substantive understood.

1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. ii. v. 210 The World is a..System, whose Parts have a mutual Reference to each other.

1788 J. Madison Federalist Papers liv. 135 In the latter, it has reference to the proportion of wealth, of which it is no case a precise measure, and in ordinary cases a very unfit one.

1821 W. Scott Kenilworth II. vi. 175 A strange smile, which yet bore a greater reference to the human character.

1850 J. McCosh Method Divine Govt. (ed. 2) i. ii. 41 All things sublunary have a reference more or less direct to man.

1929 E. S. McCartney in Papers Michigan Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. 10 316/2 Pump handle.., salute. This use has reference to the stiff snappy character of the salute.

1994 R. Hendrickson Happy Trails 110 The absentee Shawnee cherished a prophetic tradition,..having reference to certain present and eternal judgements that would be visited upon the unfortunate head of any Indian who laid aside the blanket to adopt the white man's dress.

1883 F. H. Bradley Princ. Logic I. i. ii. 55 Judgment is not the synthesis of ideas, but the reference of ideal content to reality.

1915 Jrnl. Philos., Psychol. & Sci. Methods 12 59 A prior knowledge of what pastness means must be possessed by the mind before it can make a significant reference of an idea to a past event.

1952 M. Black tr. G. Frege On Sense & Ref. in P. Geach & M. Black Transl. Philos. Writings G. Frege 58 This is not to say that to the sense there also corresponds a reference. The words ‘the celestial body most distant from the Earth’ have a sense, but it is very doubtful if they also have a reference.

1972 Language 48 446 Reference is the relation between singular term and bearer, as well as between general predicate and the entities of which the predicate is true. With the notion of reference go the notions of naming, describing, and—therefore—truth.

1974 P. F. Strawson Subject & Predicate ii. 47 Hearer and speaker should each understand the name..as having a certain unique reference; and..the reference should be the same for each of them.

1987 Philos. Rev. 96 285 (note) The theory of sense has to do with the reference of language, while intentionality, according to Husserl, has to do with the reference of thought.

1996 B. Connolly Rotten Heart of Europe (ed. 2) xiii. 346 Now when ‘Brussels’ is used as a pejorative term, its reference is almost invariably (outside institutional dining-halls) the Commission.

1998 K. Taylor Truth & Meaning i. 6 A name designates or denotes its reference and expresses its sense according to Frege.

1591 R. Cosin Apol. for Sundrie Proc. xi. 121 It is called relatio habitudinalis ad Deum, a secret implied reference to God himselfe.

1673 J. Flavell Fountain of Life xxvi. 348 A..reference to the distention of all his members upon the Tree.

1754 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison Vl. xxxi. 203 By his eye (taking the reference, as I may call it, of hers) turned as often towards me.

1785 W. Cowper Epist. to J. Hill in Task 286 Were I call'd to prove th' assertion true, One proof should serve, a reference to you.

1818 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. (ed. 2) III. 171 Without a reference to any word in the writ which connected the person with the tenure.

1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate III. i. 7 No reference had been made to the former conversation.

1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) IV. 387 The later dialogues of Plato contain many references to contemporary philosophy.

1908 E. M. Forster Room with View ii. 32 She was determined..to erase Miss Bartlett's civility by some gracious reference to the pleasant rooms.

1988 M. Forster Elizabeth Barrett Browning ix. 144 Elizabeth took Robert up on a passing reference he had made.

2005 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Mar. 298/2 These revered texts are peppered with pop-culture references we've all heard of.

1591 R. Cosin Apol. for Sundrie Proc. ii. xix. 191 If their oath taken were so generall as they pretend, whereas it is in deede (by way of reference) very particular and certeine: yet they might finde examples for approouing of the equitie of oathes more generall then this.

1657 J. Tombes Anti-pædobaptism: 3rd Pt. lxxxi. 677 These things are answered by Mr. M. either with censures of me,..or by reference to what he had said before.

1672 Bp. J. Wilkins Of Princ. Nat. Relig. 51 Believing but one supreme Deity, the Father of all other subordinate powers:..whom they called Jupiter or Jove, with plain reference to the Hebrew name Jehovah.

1724 J. Kelly Mod. Navigator's Compl. Tutor iii. 298 Thus may the curious Learner..keep a Sea Journal by any, or all the other Methods by the Pen, that we have shewn in Plain Sailing, and made reference to in Mercator's Sailing.

1783 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 73 33 They..describe the acid they employed by reference to the quantity of fixed alkali, earth, or metal, a given quantity of such acid was capable of neutralizing or dissolving.

1825 W. Scott Talisman xv, in Tales Crusaders IV. 335 The shield of the Marquis bore, in reference to his title, a serrated and rocky mountain.

1858 N. Hawthorne French & Ital. Note-bks. II. 21 Demonstrating it..by reference to the points which he criticised.

1891 H. Matthews in Law Times 92 96/1 I briefly summarise them, so that reference to previous circulars on the subject may not be necessary.

1952 P. Mann Systematics Flowering Plants i. 23 This may be illustrated by reference to a number of well-known garden plants.

1978 S. Biko I write what I Like vi. 29 No longer was reference made to African culture, it became barbarism.

1989 P. Abbs A is for Aesthetic ii. 37 That complex magnetic system of reference and allusion, of stylistic attraction and repulsion, within which any individual work of art..is constituted.

2002 K. M. Shrimali in A. K. Bagchi Money & Credit Indian Hist. 14 Thirteenth-century inscriptions also make reference to a new coin called fanam.

1599 Gen. Catal. sig. A8^v, in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (new ed.) II. Certaine notes or references taken out of a large map of China, brought home by M. Thomas Candish 1588.

1612 J. Brinsley Ludus Lit. xiii. 188 If they had but only bookes of References, it would be exceeding profitable.

1665 J. Beale Let. 11 Oct. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) II. 553 Much of this I can give in one reference, viz, to Palladius, & more particularly his 14th book de Insitione.

1716 M. Davies Athenæ Britannicæ III. 192 Not one Reader in a hundred takes the pains to turn backwards and forwards, as such appendicular References require.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) References are also used in Books; where, things being but imperfectly handled, the Reader is directed to some other Part or Place where they are more amply explained.

1781 S. Johnson Fenton in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets VI. 10 Illustrations drawn from a book so easily consulted should be made by reference rather than transcription.

1864 F. M. Müller Chips (1880) III. vi. 137 He does not load his pages with references and learned notes.

1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues II. 4 By numerous references from one part of the work to another.

1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 19 Aug. 420/2 Speaking of checking references, I am told that errors are found in over 40% of them as listed in the original manuscripts.

1968 G. Jones Hist. Vikings ii. iii. 102 The subject is well ventilated, with extensive bibliographical reference, by Helmuth Schledermann.

1990 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 Oct. 742/1 References were few and confined to footnotes; they began to be collected at the end of articles from 1877.

1615 T. Adams Lycanthropy in Blacke Deuill ii. 4 Behold, is..in holy writte, euermore the vant-currer of some excellent thing... It is a Direct, a Reference, a dash of the Holy-Ghosts penne.

1678 J. Moxon Mech. Exercises I. vi. 107 I have..left out the Superiour Letters..and instead of those References give you this Alphabetical Table of Terms.

1755 J. Smith Printer's Gram. 79 The Parallel is another Sign which serves for a Reference, and is fit to be used either for side or bottom Notes.

1862 Internat. Exhib.: Illustr. Catal. Industr. Dept. II. xiii. 18/2 References—A. Cylinder. B. Stern [etc.].

1905 E. F. Atwood Pract. Commerc. Speller 112 A star (*) used in printing and writing as a reference to a note in the margin.

a1627 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Old Law (1656) v. 68 Whom for his manifest vertues, we make such judge and censure of youth and the absolute refference of life and manners.

1861 G. Smith Lect. Mod. Hist. ii. 69 Universal expediency and the fitness of things are ultimate and distant references, if they are not altogether beyond the range of our vision.

1963 A. Baraka Blues People i. 8 I want to use music as my persistent reference just because the development and transmutation of African music to American Negro music (a new music) represents to me this whole process in microcosm.

1989 V. Glendinning Grown-ups (1990) x. 118 There was nothing about him to threaten the older generation, since his values and his references seemed the same as theirs.

1804 W. Clark Jrnl. 4 Sept. in Lewis & Clark Exped. (1987) III. 47 After this I will out the Course Distance & reffurencees of each day first and remks. after.

1816 U. Brown Jrnl. in Maryland Hist. Mag. (1916) 11 231 I told him the reference that he must take, was to go back to the Large Poplar at the beginning & start fair.

1952 Markus & Zeluff Electronics for Communication Engin. ix. 342/1 This cavity has a high Q and is used as the frequency reference.

1965 W. C. Krumbein & F. A. Graybill Introd. Statist. Models Geol. iii. 51 A ‘vector property’ of a sediment..emphasizes the direction (in a compass sense as an angle from the north point or from some arbitrary reference).

1978 P. W. Atkins Physical Chem. xxix. 968 The potentiometer reading is used in the normal way to find its new potential relative to the reference.

1992 RS Components: Electronic & Electr. Products July–Oct. 775/2 Consists of a temperature compensated voltage reference; a duty-cycle controllable oscillator [etc.].

2007 Nature 20 Dec. 1176/2 For a spectral comb to be useful as a frequency reference, the spacing of the comb lines must be perfectly even.

1774 Act for Making & Keeping Navigable Rivers Aire & Calder 28 Any Person or Persons whomsoever,..although their Names are not mentioned in the said Book of Reference.

1837 Dublin Univ. Mag. Aug. 230 No authentic record of easy reference is preserved.

1860 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. 8 203 Besides the ease of reference, which may be further facilitated by an index (each space being numbered),..the cabinet can be carried about from place to place.

1931 Bot. Gaz. 92 332 These reagents are listed alphabetically for ease of reference.

1992 Gramophone Jan. 91/1 There is something fatally, hardworkingly unentertaining about this new recording, useful as it should prove for purposes of reference.

1790 G. Riley Beauties of Creation I. 206 A particular account of the treatment and food, proper for the different Song-birds peculiar to this island, which..will be a very useful reference to those who delight in keeping these entertaining little warblers.

1820 Medico-chirurg. Rev., & Jrnl. Med. Sci. 1 Pref. to Sept. Issue p. iii We have selected a mass of the most important facts..which cannot fail to provide..a valuable reference in the hurry and anxiety of actual practice.

1885 Hebraica 1 205 The triple text may serve as a useful reference for the study and comparison of the Babylonian and Assyrian characters.

1930 Copeia No. 4. 140 An attempt was made in this note to summarize the localities from which P. goodei had been taken, but a valuable reference was overlooked, that of Evermann and Goldsborough.

1972 Publishers Weekly 10 Apr. 20 (advt.) Webster's Intermediate Dictionary is the newest—and brightest—member of the Merriam-Webster family of dictionaries and references.

1994 G. M. Wong Essent. of Amateur Sports Law (ed. 2) ii. 53 The best reference for checking the correct citation form..is the ‘Blue Book’.

2007 Herald Express (Torquay) (Nexis) 29 June 14 For..plant names, the RHS Illustrated Dictionary of Gardening is a good reference.

1799 M. Hays Victim of Prejudice II. i. 13 A messenger was dispatched to the rector, who returned, in a short time, with a letter coldly civil, informing my friend, that he had already pledged his word for the curacy to a person recommended by his patron, to whom he referred Mr. Neville's messenger. To this reference Sir Peter Osborne had also vouchsafed a reply equally characteristic and insulting.

1815 W. Scott Guy Mannering III. xii. 242 I request..that you will refer Mr. Bertram to me for the reason. You will naturally wish to know what is to be the issue of such a reference.

1837 C. Dickens Let. ?24 Feb. (1965) I. 238 I have..taken the liberty of mentioning your name, among those of other references, to testify to my being ‘sober and honest’.

1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. ii. 9 Like the advertising people, I don't ask you to trust me, without offering a respectable reference. Mortimer there, is my reference, and knows all about it.

1884 Law Times Rep. 50 121/1 P. was not called upon by the auctioneer for any references as to his alleged agency.

1934 D. L. Sayers Nine Tailors 95 ‘Did he give you any references?’.. ‘Yes..he did. He give me the name of a garridge in London... But he said if I was to write to the boss, he'd put in a word for him.’

1964 M. Banton Policeman in Community ii. 18 People going on holiday are..requested to leave with the police details of their absence and of any person having a reserve key to the house—these persons and their addresses constitute a ‘reference’.

2003 K. C. Myers Buy it, Fix it, Sell it: Profit! (ed. 2) xv. 204 Ask them about their recent projects and see if they are willing to give you any references.

1818 Times 12 Sept. 1/2 (advt.) Further particulars, with references the most satisfactory, may be had on applying, post paid.

1859 Publishers' Circular 16 May 250/1 (advt.) Wanted, by a young man, a situation in town or country. Good references.

1924 J. Galsworthy White Monkey ii. ix. 197 That was my first job since the war, so I can whistle for a reference.

1940 G. D. H. Cole & M. Cole Counterpoint Murder viii. 85 Corcoran said he wrote to us taking up the reference, and got back a letter speaking very highly of the firm.

1976 ‘P. B. Yuill’ Hazell & Menacing Jester ii. 27 ‘Did Thornton get another job?’ ‘Nobody's asked me for a reference.’

2004 A. Blair Ruxton ix. 138 Bruce wrote him a glowing reference in support of his application.

1817 S. T. Coleridge Notebks. (1973) III. 4327 This Book is devoted exclusively to a Book of Reference for the noticeable Pages of every Book, that I hence forward read.

1859 E. Edwards Mem. Libraries II. 634 What are in a special sense termed books of reference such as Collections, Encyclopædias, Lexicons, Dictionaries, etc.

1991 Lang. in Society 20 464 The book is..a book of reference for microsociolinguistic scholars.

1792 T. H. B. Oldfield Entire Hist. Boroughs Great Brit. I. Pref. p. xi As a work of reference, we have arranged, in distinct heads, whatever relates to each borough respectively.

1841 Lancet 18 Dec. 418/2 This error still remains uncorrected in several valuable works of reference.

1888 Science 6 July 8/1 To the undergraduate, or even non-specialist post-graduate, almost its only service will be that of a work of reference.

1916 J. Park Text.-bk. Pract. Hydraulics p. x A valuable work of reference for all hydraulic engineers.

1995 Ashmolean Winter–Spring 23/2 Already considered by numismatists to be an essential work of reference,..this new edition almost doubles the size of the original.

1809 Universal Mag. Jan. 53/2 The Royal Institution is provided with..an apparatus room, containing instruments, models, a library of reference, &c. and reading rooms.

1886 R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. III. 401 The..collection was..divided into what we should now term a Lending Library, and a Library of Reference.

1994 W. A. Wiegand & D. G. Davis Encycl. Library Hist. 51/1 Australian state libraries are that, too, but they have always been, first and foremost, public libraries of reference and research.

1876 C. B. Comstock Notes European Surv. (Ann. Rep. Chief of Engineers, App. HH) 25 The geological charts are made by properly coloring and referencing the above topographical charts.

1891 Notes & Queries 7th Ser. 12 303/2 This loose method of indexing adds greatly to the labour of referencing a passage.

1971 Nature 3 Sept. 71/3 Each chapter is very fully referenced.

1993 Brit. Jrnl. Surg. 80 133/2 The book is comprehensive, well referenced and the management strategies well argued and presented.

1971 U.S. Patent 3,614,744 5 Once established..the system will reference only that form specified until another form command is issued or the run terminates.

1989 C. Stoll Cuckoo's Egg ix. 47 It collected no passwords, for it had been installed in a place that wasn't referenced during log-in.

1990 L. Wall & R. L. Schwartz Programming Perl vii. 379 The initialization function adds symbols to the Perl symbol table that refer back to the other glue routines, along with an index to be passed to the routine when it is called so that it knows which C subroutine or variable is being referenced.

1997 NetGuide Jan. 144/2 Netscape has the home host name referenced to 32 separate host names through a combination of round-robin DNS and client spoofing.

2006 Jrnl. Computer Sci. (Nexis) 1 Aug. 619 Users will add any metadata to a document referenced via the RDF learning resources repository through dynamic PHP web pages.

1957 R. C. Petry Late Medieval Mysticism xiii. 396 (note) The Purgatory will be referenced subsequently in the body of the Introduction as ch.i, etc., without title.

1977 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts 125 451/2 One BCS paper is referenced on page 35 of the White Paper Cmd. 6354.

1980 Encounter May 16/2 It is enough to remember that Ferrar and Debenham's formulation of the sequence of Beacon rocks is still referenced today.

1986 Indexer 15 68/1 Formality is..referenced only in Chapter 1.

2001 Time 10 Dec. 96 The writers plan to start referencing the war more directly.

1980 N. Silver in L. Michaels & C. Ricks State of Lang. 325 In architect talk.., one might overhear someone saying, ‘We should reference hi-tech at the main entrance.’

1991 Artforum Feb. 114/1 The only artist to reference Constructivism directly was..Avvakumov.

1994 Etc Montréal No. 25. 40/1 Heavily referencing both film history and pop culture, Tarantino creates a heady amalgam.

2004 S. Kruger et al. Media Stud. 76 Films referencing television and television referencing film.