refine Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb improve or perfect by pruning or polishing
down; polish; fine-tune.
- refine one's style of writing
verb make more complex, intricate, or richer
rarify; elaborate; complicate.
- refine a design or pattern
verb treat or prepare so as to put in a usable condition
- refine paper stock
- refine pig iron
- refine oil
verb reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; separate from extraneous matter or cleanse from impurities
rectify.
- refine sugar
verb attenuate or reduce in vigor, strength, or validity by polishing or purifying
- many valuable nutrients are refined out of the foods in our modern diet
verb make more precise or increase the discriminatory powers of
- refine a method of analysis
- refine the constant in the equation

Pref. re- + fine to make fine: cf. F. raffiner.

imperfect & past participle Refined present participle & verbal noun 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. Zech. xiii. 9.
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. Milton.
Syn. -- To purify; clarify; polish; ennoble.

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.
To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories. Dryden.

But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! How the style refines! Pope.
To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language. "He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy." Atterbury.