refine

• POS: Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: re=fine
• COUNT in NET: 2 in 2 verses (in OT : 2 in 2 verses)

CIDE DICTIONARY

refine, v. t. [Pref. re- + fine to make fine: cf. F. raffiner.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Love refines
  The thoughts, and heart enlarges."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- To purify; clarify; polish; ennoble.

refine, v. i. 

•  To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.  [1913 Webster]

  "So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains,
  Works itself clear, and, as it runs, refines."  [1913 Webster]
•  To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.  [1913 Webster]

  "Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories."  [1913 Webster]

  "But let a lord once own the happy lines,
  How the wit brightens! How the style refines!"  [1913 Webster]
•  To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language.  Atterbury.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

refine, v.
1 tr. free from impurities or defects; purify, clarify.
2 tr. & intr. make or become more polished or elegant or cultured.
3 tr. & intr. make or become more subtle or delicate in thought, feelings, etc.

Derivative

refinable adj.

Etymology

RE- + FINE(1) v.

THESAURUS

refine

abate, abrade, abstract, acculturate, advance, ameliorate, amend, bate, beautify, better, bolt, boost, bring forward, carve, chisel, civilize, clarify, cleanse, clear, colliquate, concentrate, convert, cultivate, curtail, decoct, decontaminate, decrassify, decrease, deduct, defrost, depreciate, depurate, derogate, detract, develop, diminish, disparage, distill, drain, eat away, edify, educate, edulcorate, elaborate, elevate, elute, embellish, emend, enhance, enlighten, enrich, erode, essentialize, evolve, excite, express, extract, fatten, favor, file away, filter, filtrate, finish, flux, focus, forward, foster, fuse, go straight, grow, harvest, hone, impair, improve, improve upon, infuse, lard, leach, lessen, lift, lixiviate, machine, make an improvement, make sensitive, mature, meliorate, melt, melt down, mend, mill, mine, narrow, nurture, oversimplify, percolate, perfect, polish, press out, process, promote, pump, purify, quicken, raise, rear, rectify, reduce, reduce to elements, refine upon, reform, remove, render, retrench, ripen, round, rub away, run, screen, season, sensibilize, sensitize, separate, sharpen, shorten, sieve, sift, simplify, sleek, slick, smelt, smooth, soak, socialize, spiritualize, steep, stimulate, stir, straighten out, strain, streamline, strip down, subduct, sublimate, sublime, subtilize, subtract, take away, take from, thaw, thin, thin out, transfigure, transform, try, unfreeze, upgrade, uplift, wear away, weed, whet, winnow, withdraw, wring, wring out

ROGET THESAURUS

refine

Cleanness

VB be clean, render clean, clean, cleanse, mundify, rinse, wring, flush, full, wipe, mop, sponge, scour, swab, scrub, brush up, wash, lave, launder, buck, absterge, deterge, decrassify, clear, purify, depurate, despumate, defecate, purge, expurgate, elutriate, lixiviate, edulcorate, clarify, refine, rack, filter, filtrate, drain, strain, disinfect, fumigate, ventilate, deodorize, whitewash, castrate, emasculate, sift, winnow, pick, weed, comb, rake, brush, sweep, rout out, clear out, sweep out, make a clean sweep of.

& Sophistry

VB judge intuitively, judge by intuition, hazard a proposition, hazard a guess, talk at random, reason ill, falsely, misjudge, paralogize, take on faith, take as a given, assume (supposition), pervert, quibble, equivocate, mystify, evade, elude, gloss over, varnish, misteach, mislead, cavil, refine, subtilize, split hairs, misrepresent, beg the question, reason in a circle, reason in circles, assume the conclusion, cut blocks with a razor, beat about the bush, play fast and loose, play fast and loose with the facts, blow hot and cold, prove that black is white and white black, travel out of the record, parler a tort et a travers, put oneself out of court, not have a leg to stand on, judge hastily, shoot from the hip, jump to conclusions (misjudgment).