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. Zec 13.

3. To purify, as manners, from what is gross, clownish or vulgar; to polish; to make elegant. We expect to See , v.i.

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.