refers

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of refer.

   The teacher often refers students to the library for further reading.

   Whenever a question gets technical, he refers it to the legal team.

   Note

   The form that agrees with a singular subject: she refers, it refers, but they refer, and also can refer or to refer. It works in two patterns. Transitively it sends someone or something elsewhere: it refers students to the library, or a question to the legal team. Intransitively it points or mentions, and to follows the verb directly: the footnote refers to an earlier chapter.

   The footnote refers to an earlier chapter.

   In this sentence, the pronoun refers back to the committee.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of refer. Informal; referrals is the usual word.

   The triage nurse sorted the morning's refers by urgency.

   Several refers to specialists were delayed by the staffing shortage.

   Note

   A newsroom word in its plural. Refers are the short blurbs on the front page of a newspaper or section that send the reader to a full story inside, each giving the story's slug or headline and its page number. It is a separate word from the present-tense verb, but it does the verb's work, because each one refers the reader onward.

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