refine
/ɹɪˈfaɪn/ verb C2- To purify; reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities. · to refine gold· to refine iron
- To become pure; to be cleared of impure matter.
- To purify of coarseness, vulgarity, inelegance, etc.; to polish. · to refine someone's manners· to refine a language
- To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
- To make nice or subtle. · to refine thought· to refine someone's language
He/she/it refines · Past refined · Past participle refined · -ing form refining
Verb forms
- Base form
- refine
- He/she/it
- refines
- Past
- refined
- Past participle
- refined
- -ing form
- refining
From the library
She was pretty in a refined way; and her eye was both merry and kind.
“It is murder, Watson—refined, cold-blooded, deliberate murder.
Rare birds, retaining their most brilliant plumage, enormous fish, spread upon massive silver dishes, together with every wine produced in the Archipelago, Asia Minor, or the Cape, sparkling in bottles, whose grotesque shape seemed to give an additional flavor to the draught,—all these, like one of the displays with which Apicius of old gratified his guests, passed in review before the eyes of the astonished Parisians, who understood that it was possible to expend a thousand louis upon a dinner for ten persons, but only on the condition of eating pearls, like Cleopatra, or drinking refined gold, like Lorenzo de’ Medici.
"Because the faculties become refined when you starve them.
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