Refine \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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Refine \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 Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)