Re*fine", 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.
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.
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.
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.