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Refined   /rəfˈaɪnd/  /rɪfˈaɪnd/   Listen
verb
Refine  v. t.  (past & past part. refined; pres. part. refining)  
1.
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."
2.
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."
Synonyms: To purify; clarify; polish; ennoble.


Refine  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."
2.
To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence. "Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories." "But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! How the style refines!"
3.
To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language. "He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy."


adjective
Refined  adj.  Freed from impurities or alloy; purifed; polished; cultured; delicate; as; refined gold; refined language; refined sentiments. "Refined wits who honored poesy with their pens."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Refined" Quotes from Famous Books



... accomplish'd orator appear, Refined in judgment, and in language clear: Thou only, Foster, hast the pleasing art At once to charm the ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 24. Saturday, April 13. 1850 • Various
... said Bessie, taking Jack's proffered arm. "Odors are too delicious for anything. They are so refined and spiritual I'm sure I could live on them. I would far prefer the fragrance of a dish of strawberries ...
— The House that Jill Built - after Jack's had proved a failure • E. C. Gardner
... mead, meade[obs3], metheglin[obs3], honeysuckle, liqueur, sweet wine, aperitif. [sources of sugar] sugar cane, sugar beets. [sweet foods] desert, pastry, pie, cake, candy, ice cream, tart, puff, pudding (food) 298. dulcification|, dulcoration|. sweetener, corn syrup, cane sugar, refined sugar, beet sugar, dextrose; artificial sweetener, saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame, Sweet'N Low. V. be sweet &c. adj. render sweet &c. adj.; sweeten; edulcorate[obs3]; dulcorate|, dulcify|; candy; mull. Adj. sweet; saccharine, sacchariferous[obs3]; dulcet, candied, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget
... strength, disregard of the soul, a want of generosity, of reverence, of nobility, which shows itself in spite of all protestations to the contrary; in a word, it is inhumanity. No man can be a naturalist with impunity: he will be coarse even with the most refined culture. A free mind is a great thing no doubt, but loftiness of heart, belief in goodness, capacity for enthusiasm and devotion, the thirst after perfection and holiness, are greater ...
— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... the process of distillation, hereinbefore described, to the re-distillation of fire-distilled oils, for the purpose of producing an oil similar to the refined oil of commerce, substantially ...
— Scientific American, Vol. 17, No. 26 December 28, 1867 • Various


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