King James Bible Dictionary

REFI'NE, verb transitive

1. To purify; in a general sense; applied to liquors, to depurate; to defecate; to clarify; to separate, as liquor, from all extraneous matter. In this sense, the verb is used with propriety, but it is customary to use fine.

2. Applied to metals, to separate the metallic substance from all other matter, whether another metal or alloy, or any earthy substance; in short, to detach the pure metal from all extraneous matter.

I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined. Zechariah 13:9.

3. To purify, as manners, from what is gross, clownish or vulgar; to polish; to make elegant. We expect to see refined manners in courts.

4. To purify, as language, by removing vulgar words and barbarisms.

5. To purify, as taste; to give a nice and delicate perception of beauty and propriety in literature and the arts.

6. To purify, as the mind or moral principles; to give or implant in the mind a nice perception of truth, justice and propriety in commerce and social intercourse. This nice perception of what is right constitutes rectitude of principle, or moral refinement of mind; and a correspondent practice of social duties, constitutes rectitude of conduct or purity of morals. Hence we speak of a refined mind, refined morals, refined principles.

To refine the heart or soul, to cleanse it from all carnal or evil affections and desires and implant in it holy or heavenly affections.

REFI'NE, verb intransitive

1. To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or in any thing that constitutes excellence.

Chaucer refined on Boccace and mended his stories.

Let a lord but own the happy lines, how the wit brightens, how the sense refines!

2. 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.

3. To affect nicety. Men sometimes refine in speculation beyond the limits of practical truth.

He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy.

REFI'NED, participle passive Purified; separated from extraneous matter; assayed, as metals; clarified, as liquors; polished; separated from what is coarse, rude or improper.

REFI'NEDLY, adverb With affected nicety or elegance.

REFI'NEDNESS, noun State of being refined; purity; refinement; also, affected purity.

REFI'NEMENT, noun

1. The act of purifying by separating from a substance all extraneous matter; a clearing from dross, dregs or recrement; as the refinement of metals or liquors.

2. The state of being pure.

The more bodies are of a kin to spirit in subtilty and refinement the more diffusive are they.

3. Polish of language; elegance; purity.

From the civil war to this time, I doubt whether the corruptions in our language have not equaled its refinements.

4. Polish of manners; elegance; nice observance of the civilities of social intercourse and of graceful decorum. refinement of manners is often found in persons of corrupt morals.

5. Purity of taste; nice perception of beauty and propriety in literature and the arts.

6. Purity of mind and morals; nice perception and observance of rectitude in moral principles and practice.

7. Purity of heart; the state of the heart purified from sensual and evil affections. This refinement is the effect of christian principles.

8. Artificial practice; subtilty; as the refinements of cunning.

9. Affectation of nicety, or of elegant improvement; as the refinements of reasoning or philosophy.

The process of refining metals is referred to by way of illustrations in Isaiah 1:25; Jeremiah 6:29; Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:2, 3.

The refiner's art was essential to the working of the precious metals. It consisted in the separation of the dress from the pure ore, which was effected by reducing the metal to a fluid state by the application of heat, and by the aid of solvents, such as alkali, (Isaiah 1:25) or lead, Jeremiah 6:29 Which, amalgamating with the dress, permitted the extraction of the unadulterated metal. The instruments required by the refiner were a crucible of furnace and a bellows or blow-pipe. The workman sat at his work, (Malachi 3:3) he was thus better enabled to watch the process, and let the metal run off at the proper moment.

REFI'NER, noun

1. One that refines metals or other things.

2. An improver in purity and elegance; as a refiner of language.

3. An inventor of superfluous subtilities; one is who over nice in discrimination, in argument, reasoning, philosophy, etc.

REFI'NERY, noun The place and apparatus for refining metals.