refined
[ri-fahynd]
- having or showing well-bred feeling, taste, etc.: refined people.
- freed or free from coarseness, vulgarity, etc.: refined taste.
- freed from impurities: refined sugar.
- very subtle, precise, or exact: refined distinctions.
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Origin of refined
Synonyms
See more synonyms for refined on Thesaurus.com1. cultivated, polished, polite, courteous, civilized, courtly, genteel, elegant. 3. clarified, distilled, purified.
Antonyms
1. rude, coarse, crude.
refine
[ri-fahyn]
- 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.
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- 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.
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- refine on/upon, to improve by inserting finer distinctions, superior elements, etc.: to refine on one's previous work.
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Origin of refine
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for refined
Contemporary Examples
To produce deliciously smooth drams of single malt, the region has refined the ancient art of distillation.
When It Comes to Great Whisky, The Size of Your Still MattersDecember 9, 2014
In refined form, sugar (also known as sucrose) has been linked to everything from heart disease to diabetes.
From the refined attire at Lincoln Center to the avant-garde dress downtown, we spotted many of the big 2014 trends.
Stacks of refined (left) and crude (right) Tin ingots after smelting.
Refined, elegant, and to the manor born, Betty is everything that Don is not.
Historical Examples
Sympathetic persons are apt to assume that every refined emotion must be ennobling.
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
Major Harper, the oldest, most refined and most soldierly of them all, was also the handsomest.
The CavalierGeorge Washington Cable
But it is in graceful, refined France that cookery is and has been, a pet art.
Culture and CookingCatherine Owen
His accent was none of the Elberthal one; it was fine, refined, polished.
The First ViolinJessie Fothergill
Not in vain you live, for every passing eye is cheered and refined by the vision.
Essays, First SeriesRalph Waldo Emerson
refined
- not coarse or vulgar; genteel, elegant, or polite
- subtle; discriminating
- freed from impurities; purified
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refine
- 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
- (tr often foll by out) 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
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Word Origin
C16: from re- + fine 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for refined
adj.
1570s, "subtle;" 1580s, "elegant;" 1590s, "purified," past participle adjective from refine (v.).
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refine
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
refine
(rĭ-fīn′)- To reduce to a pure state; purify.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.