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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Refine \Re*fine"\ (r?*f?n"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Refined}
(-find"); p. pr. & vb. n. {Refining}.] [Pref. re- fine to
make fine: cf. F. raffiner.]
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.
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I will bring the third part through the fire, and
will refine them as silver is refined. --Zech. xiii.
9.
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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.
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Love refines
The thoughts, and heart enlarges. --Milton.
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Syn: To purify; clarify; polish; ennoble.
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Refine \Re*fine"\, v. i.
1. To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.
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So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains,
Works itself clear, and, as it runs, refines.
--Addison.
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2. To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
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Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories.
--Dryden.
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But let a lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! How the style refines!
--Pope.
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3. To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language. "He
makes another paragraph about our refining in
controversy." --Atterbury.
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