Definitions

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

  • noun Refreshment with food and drink.
  • noun A light meal or repast.
  • noun Reingestion of fecal material to obtain nutrients, as is practiced by rabbits and rats.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Refreshment after hunger or fatigue; a repast: applied especially to meals in religious houses.
  • noun In civil law and old English law, repair; restoration to good condition.

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

  • noun Refreshment after hunger or fatigue; a repast; a lunch.

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

  • noun Mental or spiritual refreshment.
  • noun Physical refreshment, especially with food or drink.
  • noun A meal, especially a light meal.

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

  • noun a light meal or repast

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French réfection, from Latin refectiōnem, accusative singular of refectiō ("recovery, refection"), from reficiō ("restore, renew").

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Examples

Comments

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  • In Canto XV of Don Juan, Byron describes a sumptous dinner, listing all the dishes. But in the midst of his list, he breaks off with this aside:

    But I must crowd all into one grand mess

         Or mass; for should I stretch into detail,

    My Muse would run much more into excess,

         Than when some squeamish people deem her frail.

    But though a 'bonne vivante,' I must confess

         Her stomach 's not her peccant part; this tale

    However doth require some slight refection,

    Just to relieve her spirits from dejection.

    Of course, what he describes, is hardly "some slight refection".

    June 8, 2013

  • In the fifth stanza of Robert Browning's "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"

    November 17, 2013