refine
/ɹɪˈfaɪn/ verb
Forms refines refining refined
- verb (transitive) To purify; reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities. “to refine gold”
- verb (intransitive) To become pure; to be cleared of impure matter.
- verb (transitive) To purify of coarseness, vulgarity, inelegance, etc.; to polish. “to refine someone's manners”
- verb (ambitransitive) To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
- verb (transitive) To make nice or subtle. “to refine thought”
Synonyms
Etymology
Pref. re- + fine to make fine: cf. F. raffiner.
Webster’s 1913
- 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; to defecate; as, to refine gold or silver; to refine iron; to refine wine or sugar.
- verb 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.
- verb To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.
- verb To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “refine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details