REFINE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Refine

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/rəfˈaɪn/ /rɪfˈaɪn/ Listen

verb

Refine v. t. (past & past part. refined; pres. part. refining)

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."

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."

Synonyms: To purify; clarify; polish; ennoble.

Refine v. i.

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."

To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence. "Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories." "But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! How the style refines!"

To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language. "He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy."

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Etymology of 'Refine'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Refine" Quotes from Famous Books

... to refine the somewhat rude household in which she dwelt occurred to her, she discovered that the work was already well begun, for the chief condition of success was present—the disposition to do as she would like. The Atwoods ...

— Without a Home • E. P. Roe

... enlightenment should waft it to the skies, although each thread would be immeasurably above its present condition, the relation of one to another would still be the same. If the baser wool should be transmuted into gold, the very same process would refine and sublimate the precious metal, in a corresponding ratio; and the equilibrium of God's appointed ...

— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel

... and to look on very attentively, and that they may have the less Reason to doubt, to perform the whole Operation with their own Hands, while I stand at a Distance, and don't so much as put my Finger to it. I put them to refine the melted Matter themselves, or carry it to the Refiners to be done; I tell them beforehand, how much Silver or Gold it will afford: And in the last Place, I bid them carry the melted Mass to several Goldsmiths, to have it try'd by the Touchstone. They find the exact Weight ...

— Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. • Erasmus

... be; but a thousand tales shall not exhaust its treasury of romance. Earthquake and fire shall not change it, terror and suffering shall not break its glad, mad spirit. Time alone can tame the town, restrain its wanton manners, refine its terrible beauty, rob it of its nameless charm, subdue it to the commonplace. May time be merciful—may it delay its fatal duty till we have learned that to love, to forgive, to ...

— The California Birthday Book • Various

... Ye are merry Gentlemen, And by my troth, such harmless mirth takes me too, You speak like good blunt Souldiers; and 'tis well enough: But did you live at Court, as I do, Gallants, You would refine, and learn an apter language; I have done ye simple service on your Pompey, You might have lookt him yet this brace of twelve months And hunted after him, like foundred Beagles, Had not ...

— The False One • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

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