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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Refine

Re-fīne', v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. REFINED; p. pr. & vb. n. REFINING.] [Prefix re and fine, v. t.; Fr. raffiner, It. raffinare, raffinire, Sp. & Pg. refinar.]

Sense 1. To reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to separate from extraneous matter; to free from impurities; to purify; to defecate; to clarify; as, to refine wine, sugar, and the like. “A quantity of water boiled with refined sugar.” Mortimer.

Sense 2. (Metal.) To reduce, as metals, from the ore; to free from dross; to bring into an uncompounded state.

I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined. Zech. xiii. 9.

Sense 3. To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant; to impart high culture to; to polish; as, to refine the manners, the language, the style, the taste, the intellect, or moral feelings. “A world of refined wits who honored poesy with their pens.” Peacham.

Love refines the thoughts. Milton.

Synonyms—To purify; clarify; polish.

Re-fine', v. i.

verbintransitive

v. 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.

Sense 2. To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence of any kind.

Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories. Dryden.

Yet let a lord but own the happy lines, How the wit brightens, how the sense refines! Pope.

Sense 3. To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language;

He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy. Atterbury.