Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Refine

Re-fine′

(r?-f?n′)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Refined
(-find′)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Refining
.]
[Pref.
re-
+
fine
to make fine: cf. F.
raffiner
.]
1.
To reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy; to separate from extraneous matter; to purify; to defecate;
as, to
refine
gold or silver; to
refine
iron; to
refine
wine or sugar.
I will bring the third part through the fire, and will
refine
them as silver is
refined
.
Zech. xiii. 9.
2.
To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or exellent; to polish;
as, to
refine
the manners, the language, the style, the taste, the intellect, or the moral feelings
.
Love
refines

The thoughts, and heart enlarges.
Milton.
Syn. – To purify; clarify; polish; ennoble.

Re-fine′

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.
So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains,
Works itself clear, and, as it runs,
refines
.
Addison.
2.
To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
Chaucer
refined
on Boccace, and mended his stories.
Dryden.
But let a lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! How the style
refines
!
Pope.
3.
To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language.
“He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy.”
Atterbury.

Webster 1828 Edition


Refine

REFI'NE

, v.t.
1.
To purify; in a general sense; applied to liquors, to depurate; to defecate; to clarify; to separate, as liquor, from all extraneous matter. In this sense, the verb is used with propriety, but it is customary to use fine.
2.
Applied to metals, to separate the metallic substance from all other matter, whether another metal or alloy, or any earthy substance; in short, to detach the pure metal from all extraneous matter.
I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined. Zech. 13.
3.
To purify, as manners, from what is gross, clownish or vulgar; to polish; to make elegant. We expect to see refined manners in courts.
4.
To purify, as language, by removing vulgar words and barbarisms.
5.
To purify, as taste; to give a nice and delicate perception of beauty and propriety in literature and the arts.
6.
To purify, as the mind or moral principles; to give or implant in the mind a nice perception of truth, justice and propriety in commerce and social intercourse. This nice perception of what is right constitutes rectitude of principle, or moral refinement of mind; and a correspondent practice of social duties, constitutes rectitude of conduct or purity of morals. Hence we speak of a refined mind, refined morals, refined principles.
To refine the heart or soul, to cleanse it from all carnal or evil affections and desires and implant in it holy or heavenly affections.

REFI'NE

, v.i.
1.
To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or in any thing that constitutes excellence.
Chaucer refined on Boccace and mended his stories.
Let a lord but own the happy lines, how the wit brightens, how the sense refines!
2.
to become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.
So the pure limpid stream, when foul with stains, works itself clear, and as it runs, refines.
3.
To affect nicety. Men sometimes refine in speculation beyond the limits of practical truth.
He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy.

Definition 2024


refine

refine

See also: refiné

English

Verb

refine (third-person singular simple present refines, present participle refining, simple past and past participle refined)

  1. To reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy; to separate from extraneous matter; to purify
    • 2013 August 3, Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. [] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.
    to refine gold or silver;  to refine iron;  to refine wine or sugar
  2. To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or excellent; to polish.
    to refine the manners, the language, the style, the taste, the intellect, or the moral feelings
  3. To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.
  4. To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
  5. To affect nicety or subtlety in thought or language.

Related terms

Translations

External links

  • refine in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • refine in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams


Portuguese

Verb

refine

  1. first-person singular present subjunctive of refinar
  2. third-person singular present subjunctive of refinar
  3. first-person singular imperative of refinar
  4. third-person singular imperative of refinar

Spanish

Verb

refine

  1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of refinar.
  2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of refinar.
  3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of refinar.
  4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of refinar.