Ref

What is ref short for?

Referee

Ref is an abbreviation for "referee," which is an official of a sporting event. It is used in a variety of sports leagues such as the NBA, NHL, NFL and FIFA.

Refs are typically looked down upon by most sports fans and often receive death threats for missing calls that happen faster than a blink of the eye. A nickname often used by fans to refer to a ref is "zebra", which comes from the black and white uniforms typically worn by a football and hockey refs.

Example

Those refs need to get their heads on straight! That clearly was a foul!
A football ref signaling a first down
A football ref signaling a first down

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Updated November 6, 2017

ref definition by Slang.net - The Slang Dictionary

This page explains what the abbreviation "ref" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been manually compiled and written by the Slang.net team.

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