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To separate or undo the texture of; to take apart; to untwist; to unweave or unknit; -- often followed by out; as, to ravel a twist; to ravel out a sticking. Sleep, that knits up the raveled sleave of care. Shak.

Superfluous matter separated from that which is useful; dross; scoria; as, the recrement of ore.

r refines; esp., a part of a distilling apparatus in which the more volatile portions are separated from the less volatile by the process of evaporation and condensation; a rectifier.

urify by repeated distillation or sublimation, by which the fine parts of a substance are separated from the grosser; as, to rectify spirit of wine.

To riddle; to sift; to separate or throw off. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Mortimer.

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…

t churches originating in the Reformation. Also, in a more restricted sense, of those who separated from Luther on the doctrine of consubstantiation, etc., and carried the Reformation, as they claimed, to a higher point. The Protestant churches founded by them in Switzerland, France, Holland, and part of Germany, were…

The burden of a song; a phrase or verse which recurs at the end of each of the separate stanzas or divisions of a poetic composition. We hear the wild refrain. Whittier.

A flat, narrow molding, used chiefly to separate the parts or members of compartments or panels from one another, or doubled, turned, and interlaced so as to form knots, frets, or other ornaments. See Illust. (12) of Column.

To reduce to regulus; to separate, as a metal from extraneous matter; as, to regulize antimony. [Archaic]

The thin membrane which separates the canal of the cochlea from the vestibular scala in the internal ear.

Separate; abstracted. "Wherever the mind places itself by any thought, either amongst, or remote from, all bodies." Locke.

To separate into parts with force or sudden violence; to tear asunder; to split; to burst; as, powder rends a rock in blasting; lightning rends an oak. The dreadful thunder Doth rend the region. Shak.

rts, but adjuncts, of repentance; yet they are too closely connected with it to be easily separated. Rambler.

A system of lines forming small squares of standard size, which is photographed, by a separate exposure, on the same plate with star images to facilitate measurements, detect changes of the film, etc.

That which remains after a part is taken, separated, removed, or designated; remnant; remainder. The residue of them will I deliver to the sword. Jer. xv. 9. If church power had then prevailed over its victims, not a residue of English liberty would have been saved. I. Taylor.

To separate the component parts of; to reduce to the constituent elements; -- said of compound substances; hence, sometimes, to melt, or dissolve. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Shak. Ye immortal souls, who once were men, And now resolved to elements again. Dryden.…

An assembling of persons who have been separated, as of a family, or the members of a disbanded regiment; an assembly so composed.

To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.

An addition or amendment to a manuscript or other document, which is attached on a separate piece of paper; in legislative practice, an additional clause annexed to a bill while in course of passage; something extra or burdensome that is imposed. After the third reading, a foolish man stood up to propose a rider. Macau…