Refrain from doing

[Guest]

Test No. incompl/advan-8 "Business", question 5

All employees are kindly requested to ......... from smoking in the presence of customers.

(a) stop
(b) restrain
(c) refrain
(d) restrict

Test No. incompl/advan-8 "Business", answer 5

All employees are kindly requested to refrain from smoking in the presence of customers.

Correct answer: (c) refrain

Your answer was: incorrect
All employees are kindly requested to stop from smoking in the presence of customers.
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what does "refrain" mean?

[Torsten]

If you refrain from doing something you keep away from it, you don't do it.
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Ana]

And why can't we use restrain?

[Alan]

Hi Ana,

Refrain from indicates that you do not do something/stop yourself doing it. Restrain should have an object and means restrict somebody from doing something.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Phrasal Verbs/go