Lexic.us

Definition of Refine

1. Verb. Improve or perfect by pruning or polishing. "Refine one's style of writing"

2. Verb. Make more complex, intricate, or richer. "Refine a design or pattern"

3. Verb. Treat or prepare so as to put in a usable condition. "Refine oil"

4. Verb. Reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; separate from extraneous matter or cleanse from impurities. "Refine sugar"

5. Verb. Attenuate or reduce in vigor, strength, or validity by polishing or purifying. "Many valuable nutrients are refined out of the foods in our modern diet"

6. Verb. Make more precise or increase the discriminatory powers of. "Refine the constant in the equation"

Definition of Refine

1. v. t. 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.

2. v. i. To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.

Definition of Refine

1. Verb. 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; as, to refine gold or silver; to refine iron; to refine wine or sugar. ¹

2. Verb. To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or excellent; to polish; as, to refine the manners, the language, the style, the taste, the intellect, or the moral feelings. ¹

3. Verb. To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter. ¹

4. Verb. To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence. ¹

5. Verb. To affect nicety or subtlety in thought or language. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Refine

1. to free from impurities [v -FINED, -FINING, -FINES]

Medical Definition of Refine

1. 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) Synonym: To purify, clarify, polish, ennoble. Origin: Pref. Re- + fine to make fine: cf. F. Raffiner. 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." Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Refine

refilters refiltration refiltrations refinable refinalization refinance refinanced refinancer refinancers refinances

refinancing refinancings refind refinding refinds refine (current term) refined refined sugar refinedly refinedness

refinement refinements refiner refineries refiners refinery refines refining refining industry refinings

Literary usage of Refine

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Montessori Method: Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in by Maria Montessori, Anne E. George, Henry Wyman Holmes (1912)
"... forms and the different qualities of objects, but that he refine his senses through an exercise of attention, of comparison, of judgment. ..."

2. A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by Walter William Skeat (1882)
"refine, сотр. of L. re-, again, L. af- = ad. to, and Y.Jin, fine. Der. refine-mcnt; cf. í~. raffinement, Finch, a bird. (E.) ME///Í/Í. AS /<r7/<r.+Du. ..."

3. Four English Humourists of the Nineteenth Century by William Samuel Lilly (1895)
"The moral ideal embraces our entire being : all other ideals only segments thereof. The morality of a novel may be true or false. It may refine and elevate. ..."

4. The English Reader: Or, Pieces in Prose and Poetry, Selected from the Best by Lindley Murray (1815)
"... m,iy the fun refine grape's foft juice, and mellow it to wine ; With citron groves adorn a ... refine ..."

5. A Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia, Beginning October 20, 1737: By by William Stephens (1908)
"... branching out into various Opinions, and seeming to refine upon those Doctrines, sufficiently abstruse already, touching Justification, Predestination, ..."

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