REFINED • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Refined

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/rəfˈaɪnd/ /rɪfˈaɪnd/ 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."

adjective

Refined adj. Freed from impurities or alloy; purifed; polished; cultured; delicate; as; refined gold; refined language; refined sentiments. "Refined wits who honored poesy with their pens."

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Etymology of 'Refined'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Refined" Quotes from Famous Books

... frock coat, white vest, neatly-fitting dark-brown trowsers, highly-polished boots, a cluster of diamonds set in an avalanche of corded shirt-bosom, and carelessly-tied green cravat, lend a respectability better imagined than described. A certain reckless dash about him, not common to a refined gentleman, forces us to set him down as one of those individuals who hold an uncertain position in society; and though they may now and then mingle with men of refinement, have their more legitimate sphere in a fashionable world of ...

— Justice in the By-Ways - A Tale of Life • F. Colburn Adams

... represent that part of the Union which is principally to be affected by the measure. I believe, sir, that the latter class consists of as useful and as good citizens as the petitioners, men equally friends to the revolution, and equally susceptible of the refined sensations of humanity and benevolence. Why then should such particular attention be paid to them, for bringing forward a business of questionable policy? If Congress are disposed to interfere in the importation of slaves, they can take the subject up without advisers, ...

— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, To throw a perfume on the violet, To smooth the ice, or add another hue Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light To seek the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish, Is wasteful and ridiculous ...

— Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations • Various

... reverent hands; and, to my mind, the perfunctory in things ecclesiastical is hardly more distressing than the service of books as conducted in many great libraries. One feels that the librarii should be a sacred order, nearly allied to the monastic, refined by varying steps of initiation, and certainly celibates. They should give out their books as the priest his sacrament, should wear sacred vestments, and bear about with them the priestlike aura, as of divine incarnations of the great spirit of Truth and Art in whose temples they are ministrants. ...

— The Book-Bills of Narcissus - An Account Rendered by Richard Le Gallienne • Le Gallienne, Richard

... down to the very corners of his mouth, only a little mouse-tail sort of arrangement being left on each side, which was twisted upwards and dyed black with infinite skill. His costume was elegant and ultra-refined, and only differed from the fashion in being extra stiff and tight-fitting. Moreover, all the buttons of his shirt and his waistcoat were precious stones, and he had a plenitude of rings on his fingers which he delighted to show ...

— The Poor Plutocrats • Maurus Jokai

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