refines
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of refine
• Feiners, enfires, ensifer, fineers, sin-free
Source: Wiktionary
Re*fine" (r*fn"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Refined (-find"); p. pr. & vb. n. Refining.] Etym: [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.
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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
9 March 2025
(verb) fill to excess so that function is impaired; “Fear clogged her mind”; “The story was clogged with too many details”
The first coffee-house in Mecca dates back to the 1510s. The beverage was in Turkey by the 1530s. It appeared in Europe circa 1515-1519 and was introduced to England by 1650. By 1675 the country had more than 3,000 coffee houses, and coffee had replaced beer as a breakfast drink.
