Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Refer

Refer (re*fẽr") , transitive verb

[French référer, Latin referre; pref. re- re- + ferre to bear. See Bear to carry.]

1.
To carry or send back. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
2.
Hence: To send or direct away; to send or direct elsewhere, as for treatment, aid, information, decision, etc.; to make over, or pass over, to another; as, to refer a student to an author; to refer a beggar to an officer; to refer a bill to a committee; a court refers a matter of fact to a commissioner for investigation, or refers a question of law to a superior tribunal.
3.
To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation; as, he referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.
I'll refer me to all things sense. — Shakespeare
Collocations (1)
To refer one's self , to have recourse; to betake one's self; to make application; to appeal. [Obsolete]

Refer , intransitive verb

1.
To have recourse; to apply; to appeal; to betake one's self; as, to refer to a dictionary.
In suits... it is to refer to some friend of trust. — Bacon
2.
To have relation or reference; to relate; to point; as, the figure refers to a footnote.
Of those places that refer to the shutting and opening the abyss, I take notice of that in Job. — Bp. Burnet
3.
To carry the mind or thought; to direct attention; as, the preacher referred to the late election.
4.
To direct inquiry for information or a guarantee of any kind, as in respect to one's integrity, capacity, pecuniary ability, and the like; as, I referred to his employer for the truth of his story.
Now to the universal whole advert: The earth regard as of that whole a part. — Blackmore