refine : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: refine	by the DICT Development Group
4 results for refine
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
refine v improve or perfect by pruning or polishing; "refine one's style of writing" Synonym(s): polish, refine, fine-tune, down make more complex, intricate, or richer; "refine a design or pattern" Synonym(s): complicate, refine, rarify, elaborate treat or prepare so as to put in a usable condition; "refine paper stock"; "refine pig iron"; "refine oil" reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; separate from extraneous matter or cleanse from impurities; "refine sugar" Synonym(s): refine, rectify attenuate or reduce in vigor, strength, or validity by polishing or purifying; "many valuable nutrients are refined out of the foods in our modern diet" make more precise or increase the discriminatory powers of; "refine a method of analysis"; "refine the constant in the equation"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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. [bd]He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy.[b8] --Atterbury.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Refine \Refine"\ (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.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
REFINE 1. "Research on Knowledge-Based Software Environments at Kestrel Institute", D.R. Smith et al, IEEE Trans Soft Eng, SE-11(11) (1985). E-mail: . 2. Cordell Green et al, Stanford U. Uses logic to specify and evolve programs. [same as 1?] Reasoning Systems, Inc. E-mail: .