refine
Americanverb (used with object)
-
refines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
refined,
past participle, past
-
refining
present participle
-
to bring to a fine or a pure state; free from impurities.
to refine metal, sugar, or petroleum.
-
to purify from what is coarse, vulgar, or debasing; make elegant or cultured.
-
to bring to a finer state or form by purifying.
-
to make more fine, subtle, or precise.
to refine one's writing style.
verb (used without object)
-
refines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
refined,
past participle, past
-
refining
present participle
-
to become pure.
The silver is refining in the furnace.
-
to become more fine, elegant, or polished.
His parents hope that his manners will refine as he gets older.
-
to make fine distinctions in thought or language.
verb phrase
verb
-
to make or become free from impurities, sediment, or other foreign matter; purify
-
(tr) to separate (a mixture) into pure constituents, as in an oil refinery
-
to make or become free from coarse characteristics; make or become elegant or polished
-
to remove (something impure or extraneous)
-
(intr; often foll by on or upon) to enlarge or improve (upon) by making subtle or fine distinctions
-
(tr) to make (language) more subtle or polished
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
refinernoun
-
prerefineverb (used with object)
-
superrefineverb (used with object)
-
refinableadjective
-
self-refiningadjective
-
unrefiningadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
refinesimple
-
refinessimple
-
have refinedperfect
-
has refinedperfect
-
am refiningprogressive
-
are refiningprogressive
-
is refiningprogressive
-
have been refiningperfect progressive
-
has been refiningperfect progressive
Past
-
refinedsimple
-
had refinedperfect
-
was refiningprogressive
-
were refiningprogressive
-
had been refiningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of refine
Explanation
When you refine something, you make it better. Whether it's sugar or an essay, refining it requires fixing its flaws. You may think you created a masterpiece on the first try. But there's always room to refine. More than just working out the kinks, refining something means you're going to fine tune it, hone it to perfection, and make it more precise. In scientific terms, to refine something means to reduce it down to a pure state. At the dinner table, you can please grandma by refining your manners.
Vocabulary lists containing refine
Hatchet
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Chew On This
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Moerner and Kueppers are continuing to refine the instrument, with the goal of eventually making it accessible to scientists across many areas of biology.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Moving it through a pipeline and into a tanker requires treatment that would add $15 a barrel to its cost, he estimates, not counting the specialized equipment needed to refine it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Dangote Industries says it will import most of the crude oil it plans to refine from Nigeria, the U.S.,
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
Diesel is harder to refine than gasoline and so while UK refineries produce more than the quantity of petrol consumed domestically, they meet less than half of the demand for diesel.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
"Our aim is to enhance, Your Highness. The first arcana is meant to refine one's natural disposition, or help one develop his or her talents, so that he or she may meet their goals."
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
The creative team then reviews and refines multiple AI-generated versions of a scene before deciding which expressions and line readings best serve the story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Sherritt’s interests in Cuba include Moa, an equal venture with General Nickel Co. of Cuba that mines, processes and refines nickel and cobalt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Then there’s the looming threat of “vibe coding,” a term coined by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy in 2025, in which AI generates and refines code using natural-language prompts.
From Barron's ● Jan. 5, 2026
FactSet collects and refines data from official filings, news, sell-side research and fixed-income pricing, creating a high barrier for entry for new AI entrants.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 13, 2025
A race builds itself for a million years, refines itself, erects cities like those out there, does everything it can to give itself respect and beauty, and then it dies.
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
No dichotomy better represents Berlant’s razor-sharp, thoroughly tasteful wit, which sits halfway between refined humorist and go-for-broke court jester.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
Adnoc L&S supports offshore drilling projects and operates more than 100 ships used to transport crude oil, LNG and refined products globally.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Prices of refined petroleum products remain between 70 and 95 percent above pre-war levels, putting pressure on countries dependent on energy imports for economic activity.
From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026
“If this hurricane ends up causing refinery flooding, it would exacerbate an already tight market for refined products, further pushing up prices at the pump,” Molchanov told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
She discovered that Inka metallurgy was, in fact, as refined as European metallurgy, but that it had such different goals that academic experts had not even recognized it.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Engineers will continue refining its camera settings and determining the optimal configurations for its deformable mirrors, which can change shape to make extremely precise corrections to incoming light.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
The approaching Northern Hemisphere winter leaves the market with little margin for error: until refining output recovers, inventories rebuild and shipping risks ease, efforts to lower diesel prices are likely to face significant limits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
The French energy major expects its European refining margin marker to rise to $33.2 a barrel from $13.5 in the prior quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
TotalEnergies’ refining output increased 10% over the quarter, the company said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Now growers who knew all about plantations, mills, and refining found sugar waiting for them on islands as beautiful as Hispaniola had been when Columbus arrived.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
