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Freedom from foreign matter or alloy; clearness; purity; as, the fineness of liquor. The fineness of the gold, and chargeful fashion. Shak.

The state of being superfine.

The quality, or comparative purity, of gold or silver; fineness.

The difference by which fine gold or silver exceeds in fineness the standard.

urt. [Obs.] Bolting cloth, wire, hair, silk, or other sieve cloth of different degrees of fineness; -- used by millers for sifting flour. McElrath. -- Bolting hutch, a bin or tub for the bolted flour or meal; (fig.) a receptacle.

en to the handmade ground of real Brussels lace. It is very costly because of the extreme fineness of the threads. -- Brussels lace, an expensive kind of lace of several varieties, originally made in Brussels; as, Brussels point, Brussels ground, Brussels wire ground. -- Brussels net, an imitation of Brussels ground,…

A twenty-fourth part; -- a term used in estimating the proportionate fineness of gold.

Costly; expensive. [Obs.] The fineness of the gold and chargeful fashion. Shak.

To make of a definite fineness, and convert into coins, as a mass of metal; to mint; to manufacture; as, to coin silver dollars; to coin a medal.

g of one or more leaves, called petals. It is usually distinguished from the calyx by the fineness of its texture and the gayness of its colors. See the Note under Blossom.

Nicety or fineness of form, texture, or constitution; softness; elegance; smoothness; tenderness; and hence, frailty or weakness; as, the delicacy of a fiber or a thread; delicacy of a hand or of the human form; delicacy of the skin; delicacy of frame.

Smallness; meagerness; slenderness; fineness, thinness. [R.] Paley.

Fineness; beauty. [Obs.] Don't choose your place of study by the finery of the prospects. I. Watts.

Woolen or cotton refuse (sing. or pl.), old rags, etc., reduced to a degree of fineness by machinery, and used for stuffing unpholstered furniture.

x. -- Flour dresser, a mashine for sorting and distributing flour according to grades of fineness. -- Flour mill, a mill for grinding and sifting flour.

, in 1865, entered into a monetary agreement, providing for an identity in the weight and fineness of the gold and silver coins of those countries, and for the amounts of each kind of coinage by each. Greece, Servia, Roumania, and Spain subsequently joined the Union.

ssociated iron ores, and called coarse metal, fine metal, etc., according to the grade of fineness. On the exterior it is dark brown or black, but on a fresh surface is yellow or bronzy in color.

A breed of sheep originally from Spain, noted for the fineness of its wool.

e expression, act, mode of treatment, distinction, or the like; a minute distinction. The fineness and niceties of words. Locke. To a nicety, with great exactness or accuracy.

e of speed of a loom being reckoned as so many picks per minute; hence, in describing the fineness of a fabric, a weft thread; as, so many picks to an inch. Pick dressing (Arch.), in cut stonework, a facing made by a pointed tool, leaving the surface in little pits or depressions. -- Pick hammer, a pick with one end s…