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out with care; choice. Hence: of rare quality, elegance, or attractiveness; peculiar and refined in kind.

That which rectifies or 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.

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

Hence, figuratively, lacking refinement, gentleness, or polish. Specifically:

Characterized by roughness; umpolished; raw; lacking delicacy or refinement; coarse. Such gardening tools as art, yet rude, . . . had formed. Milton.

Greek, when rightly mixed and qualified with the Doric dialect. Addison. The Saxons were refined from their rusticity. Sir W. Scott.

Of or pertaining to a seraph; becoming, or suitable to, a seraph; angelic; sublime; pure; refined. "Seraphic arms and trophies." Milton. "Seraphical fervor." Jer. Taylor. -- Se*raph"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Se*raph"ic*al*ness, n.

A weight of four grains; a carat; -- a term used by jewelers, and refiners of gold.

fuse, as, ore, for the purpose of separating and refining the metal; hence, to reduce; to refine; to flux or scorify; as, to smelt tin.

nding. Southey. Yet Butler professes to stick to plain facts, not to sophisticate, not to refine. M. Arnold. They purchase but sophisticated ware. Dryden.

Like spirit; refined; defecated; pure. [R.] More refined, more spirituous and pure. Milton.

To refine intellectiually or morally; to purify from the corrupting influence of the world; to give a spiritual character or tendency to; as, to spiritualize soul. This seen in the clear air, and the whole spiritualized by endless recollections, fills the eye and the heart more forcibly than I can find words to say. Ca…

Of the nature, or having the appearance, of a spirit; pure; refined; ethereal.

Containing, or of the nature of, alcoholic (esp. distilled) spirit; consisting of refined spirit; alcoholic; ardent; as, spirituous liquors.

s of yeomen, spurring hard to Westminster. Macaulay. Some bold men, . . . by spurring on, refine themselves. Grew.

To refine and exalt; to heighten; to elevate. The precepts of Christianity are . . . so apt to cleanse and sublimate the more gross and corrupt. Dr. H. More.

Refined by, or as by, sublimation; exalted; purified. [Words] whose weight best suits a sublimated strain. Dryden.

That which is sublimed; the product of a purifying process. Religion is the perfection, refinement, and sublimation of morality. South.

Characterized by nicety of discrimination; discerning; delicate; refined; subtle. [In this sense now commonly written subtle.] The genius of the Spanish people is exquisitely subtile, without being at all acute; hence there is so much humor and so little wit in their literature. The genius of the Italians, on the contr…

Refinement; subtlety; extreme attenuation.