reference

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An act of referring: filed away the article for future reference.
2. n. Significance in a specified context: Her speeches have special reference to environmental policy.
3. n. Meaning or denotation.
4. n. The state of being related or referred: with reference to; in reference to.
5. n. A mention of an occurrence or situation: made frequent references to her promotion.
6. n. A note in a publication referring the reader to another passage or source.
7. n. The passage or source so referred to.
8. n. A work frequently used as a source.
9. n. A mark or footnote used to direct a reader elsewhere for additional information.
10. n. Law Submission of a case to a referee.
11. n. Law Legal actions conducted before or by a referee.
12. n. A person who is in a position to recommend another or to vouch for his or her fitness, as for a job.
13. n. A statement about a person's qualifications, character, and dependability.
14. v. To supply references to: "Our memories are addressed and referenced . . . by significant fragments of their own content” ( Frederick Turner).
15. v. To mention in a reference; refer to: He referenced her book in his speech. See Usage Note at allude.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of referring. The act of assigning: as, the reference of a work to its author, or of an animal to its proper class.
2. n. In law: The process of assigning a cause pending in court, or some particular point in a cause, to one or more persons appointed by the court under authority of law to act in place of or in aid of the court.
3. n. Relation; respect; regard: generally in the phrase in or with reference to.
4. n. That which is or may be referred to. A written testimonial to character or ability.
5. n. A direction in a book or writing to refer to some other place or passage: often a mere citation, as of book, chapter, page, or text.
6. n. Assignment; apportionment.
7. n. An appeal.
8. 1. To refer a thing to (something).
9. To assign proper references to, as to a phrase; look up and find by reference.
10. To schedule (property) to be taken for a proposed railway extension.
11. To make out a return of the number of people to be displaced by proposed railway extension.

Wiktionary

1. n. A relationship or relation (to something).
2. n. A measurement one can compare to.
3. n. Information about a person, provided by someone (a referee) with whom they are well acquainted
4. n. A reference work.
5. n. semantics A relation between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object.
6. n. academic writing A short written identification of a previously published work which is used as a source for a text.
7. n. academic writing A previously published written work thus indicated; a source.
8. n. programming An object containing information which refers to data stored elsewhere, as opposed to containing the data itself.
9. n. programming A special sequence used to represent complex characters in a web page such as ™ or €.
10. v. to refer to, to make reference to, to cite
11. v. to mention

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of referring, or the state of being referred.
2. n. That which refers to something; a specific direction of the attention.
3. n. Relation; regard; respect.
4. n. One who, or that which, is referred to.
5. n. One of whom inquires can be made as to the integrity, capacity, and the like, of another.
6. n. A work, or a passage in a work, to which one is referred.
7. n. The act of submitting a matter in dispute to the judgment of one or more persons for decision.
8. n. (Equity) The process of sending any matter, for inquiry in a cause, to a master or other officer, in order that he may ascertain facts and report to the court.
9. n. rare Appeal.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a remark that calls attention to something or someone
2. n. (computer science) the code that identifies where a piece of information is stored
3. n. the relation between a word or phrase and the object or idea it refers to
4. n. a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage
5. n. a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications and dependability
6. n. the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression; the class of objects that an expression refers to
7. n. a publication (or a passage from a publication) that is referred to
8. n. an indicator that orients you generally
9. n. a book to which you can refer for authoritative facts
10. v. refer to
11. n. the act of referring or consulting