Fromre- +fine.
refine (third-person singular simple presentrefines,present participlerefining,simple past and past participlerefined)
- (transitive) Topurify;reduce to afine,unmixed, orpure state; to free fromimpurities.
torefine gold
torefine iron
torefine wine
torefine sugar
2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, inThe Economist, volume408, number8847: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 therefining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.
- (intransitive) To becomepure; to becleared of impure matter.
- (transitive) To purify ofcoarseness,vulgarity,inelegance, etc.; topolish.
torefine someone's manners
torefine a language
arefined style
torefine one's tastes
- (ambitransitive) Toimprove inaccuracy,delicacy, orexcellence.
1815,Jane Austen,Emma, volume I, chapter 9:My dear Harriet, you must notrefine too much upon this charade.—You will betray your feelings improperly, if you are too conscious and too quick, and appear to affix more meaning, or even quite all the meaning which may be affixed to it.
2007 August 2, Ben Brantley, “Titters, Snickers and Guffaws, With a British Accent”, inNew York Times[1]:Adjust the volume, tweak the contours,refine the timing and, if need be, fiddle with the setting, and the hoariest yuck-fest can seem as dewy as a morning in May. Examples of tales told ticklingly are in unusual abundance here, with comedies for every taste within the mainstream of London theater.
2023 August 23, Chris Howe, “Green screen: HS2's route through the shires”, inRAIL, number990, page34:HS2 Ltd has continued torefine the designs, so that seven fewer ancient woodlands will be affected. This reduces the total number to 25. And of those 25 woodlands, 85% of the total area will remain untouched by HS2.
- (transitive) To makenice orsubtle.
torefine thought
torefine someone's language
to reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy
to purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or excellent; to polish
to improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence
to affect nicety or subtlety in thought or language
Translations to be checked
- “refine”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “refine”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.
refine
- inflection ofrefinar:
- first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
- third-personsingularimperative
refine
- inflection ofrefinar:
- first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
- third-personsingularimperative
