 5 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
refine
verb
1: improve or perfect by pruning or polishing; "refine one's
style of writing" [syn: {polish}, {fine-tune}, {down}]
2: make more complex, intricate, or richer; "refine a design or
pattern" [syn: {complicate}, {rarify}, {elaborate}]
3: treat or prepare so as to put in a usable condition; "refine
paper stock"; "refine pig iron"; "refine oil"
4: reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; separate from
extraneous matter or cleanse from impurities; "refine
sugar" [syn: {rectify}]
5: 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"
6: make more precise or increase the discriminatory powers of;
"refine a method of analysis"; "refine the constant in the
equation"
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Refine \Re*fine"\, verb (used without an object)
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.
--Addison.
2. 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.
3. To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language. ''He
makes another paragraph about our refining in
controversy.'' --Atterbury.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Refine \Re*fine"\ (r?*f?n"), verb (used with an object) [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.
I will bring the third part through the fire, and
will refine them as silver is refined. --Zech. xiii.
9.
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. --Milton.
Syn: To purify; clarify; polish; ennoble.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
164 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
REFINE
1. "Research on Knowledge-Based Software Environments at
Kestrel Institute", D.R. Smith et al, IEEE Trans Soft Eng,
SE-11(11) (1985). E-mail: .
2. Cordell Green et al, Stanford U. Uses logic to specify and
evolve programs. [same as 1?] Reasoning Systems, Inc.
E-mail: .
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