Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of refining.
- n. The result of refining; an improvement or elaboration.
- n. The state or quality of being refined; cultivation, as in manners or taste.
- n. A keen or precise phrasing; a subtle distinction.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of refining or purifying; the act of separating from a substance all extraneous matter; purification: clarification: as, the refinement of metals or liquors.
- n. The state of being pure or purified.
- n. The state of being free from what is coarse, rude, inelegant, debasing, or the like; purity of taste, mind, etc.; elegance of manners or language; culture.
- n. That which proceeds from refining or a desire to refine; a result of elaboration, polish, or nicety: often used to denote an over-nicety, or affected subtlety: as, the refinements of logic or philosophy; the refinements of cunning.
- n. Excessive or extravagant compliment; a form of expression intended to impose on the hearer.
- n. Synonyms Cultivation, etc. See culture.
Wiktionary
- n. The act, or the result of refining; the removal of impurities, or a purified material
- n. High-class style; cultivation.
- n. A fine or subtle distinction.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of refining, or the state of being refined
- n. That which is refined, elaborated, or polished to excess; an affected subtilty.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude
- n. the result of improving something
- n. the process of removing impurities (as from oil or metals or sugar etc.)
- n. a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality
- n. the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste
Examples
“He dwelt on the spirit of freedom existing in America, asserting that their extreme notions of liberty arose from the peculiar religious spirit which existed in the colonies, which he termed a refinement on the principles of resistance, and which was carried with them on their first emigration from England.”
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. From George III. to Victoria
“Much of what we call refinement is a cruel burden and entails a grievous waste of human energy and happiness.”
“Is it true that cultivation, what we call refinement, kills individuality?”
“And Rome had its decadent elites snobbishly revelling in Greek refinement, while the ‘good, simple, oldfashioned’ Romans were lamenting the lost virtues of hard work, patriotism, sobriety etc.”
“The next refinement is to take into account that the luminous screen is typically round: any alpha particles striking outside the round area will not be visible.”
“It looks like you only get one page of results, so if the clip is buried deep inside YouTube, only search term refinement will dig it up here.”
Wibe7.tv Provides Thumbnail-Only YouTube Search Results | Lifehacker Australia
“But although far superior to them in refinement and the various arts of civilization, they were no match in war for the bold mountaineers, the Swiss of Anahuac.”
“They like to tell us that refinement is the bottleneck, not supply.”
Think Progress » Contrary To Administration Predictions, Iraq War Contributing To High Oil Prices
“One way of encouraging this adult refinement, is to practice having a handful of quiet each day, or especially on the days when that particular child will be in the home.”
“Leaving apart the question of how to define these variables - at present we have three different definitions competing - in two ways refinement is needed.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘refinement’.
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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quotato's Words
prospicience, appoggiatura, actually, thrum, nisus, univocal, eschatology, concupiscible, penury, psychedelic, vapid, braggadocio and 107 more...
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nominative case collection
wine stopper, pyre, roster, hamper, moleskin, elastic, pinnacle, facsimile, nook, plonk, contortionist, dismay and 342 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
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Proustian
vetiver, cheval-glass, ossature, transvertebration, orris-root, ferruginous, viaticum, rep, senescence, bengal light, madeleine, lime-blossom and 109 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for refinement.
knitandpurl "Perhaps Mme de Guermantes would smile next day when she referred to the headdress, a little too complicated, which the Princess had worn, but certainly she would declare that the latter had been none the less quite lovely and marvellously got up; and the Princess, whose own tastes found something a little cold, a little austere, a little "tailor-made" in her cousin's way of dressing, would discover in this strict sobriety an exquisite refinement."
--The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, Revised by D.J. Enright, p 63 of the Modern Library paperback edition Aug 4, 2008