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REFINED
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Suggesting taste, ease, and wealth
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
gracious (characterized by charm, good taste, and generosity of spirit)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Precise to a fine degree
Example:
due to the limitations of the available tools, a more refined analysis of the data may be necessary
Classified under:
Similar:
precise (sharply exact or accurate or delimited)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel
Example:
refined people with refined taste
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
well-bred; well-mannered (of good upbringing)
overrefined; superfine (excessively delicate or refined)
patrician (befitting a person of noble origin)
ladylike (befitting a woman of good breeding)
gentlemanlike; gentlemanly (befitting a man of good breeding)
delicate; finespun (developed with extreme delicacy and subtlety)
effete (affected, overrefined, and effeminate)
debonair; debonaire; debonnaire; suave (having a sophisticated charm)
mincing; niminy-piminy; prim; twee (affectedly dainty or refined)
couth ((used facetiously) refined and well-mannered)
civilised; civilized; cultivated; cultured; genteel; polite (marked by refinement in taste and manners)
Also:
polished (perfected or made shiny and smooth)
gracious (characterized by charm, good taste, and generosity of spirit)
fastidious (giving careful attention to detail; hard to please; excessively concerned with cleanliness)
elegant (refined and tasteful in appearance or behavior or style)
civilised; civilized (having a high state of culture and development both social and technological)
Antonym:
unrefined ((used of persons and their behavior) not refined; uncouth)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Freed from impurities by processing
Example:
to gild refined gold
Synonyms:
processed; refined
Classified under:
Adjectives
Antonym:
unrefined (not refined or processed)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
Example:
maintained an urbane tone in his letters
Synonyms:
polished; refined; urbane
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb refine
Context examples:
She will grow just refined enough to be uncomfortable with those among whom birth and circumstances have placed her home.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Unlike refined grains, which undergo extensive milling or other processing, whole grains are sold for consumption with their bran and other constituents intact—all rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, carbohydrates, and phytonutrients.
(Whole Grains Deliver on Health Benefits, U.S. Department of Agriculture)
After evaluating and resolving structural irregularities in the initial model, it may be further refined using energy minimization and other procedures.
(Homology Modeling, NCI Thesaurus)
An injectable, isotonic, nutritional lipid emulsion composed of approximately 80% refined olive oil and 20% refined soybean oil, used for parenteral nutrition.
(Olive Oil/Soya Oil/Egg Lecithin-based Emulsion, NCI Thesaurus)
I went to bed, exceedingly weary and heavy; but, on my lying down, all such sensations vanished, as if by magic, and I was broad awake, with every sense refined.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Untreated and mildly treated mineral oils contain the highest amount of aromatic and unsaturated compounds and are primarily used as a lubricant base oil to produce further refined oil products.
(Mineral oil, NCI Thesaurus)
Everything indeed relative to this important journey was done, on the part of the Morlands, with a degree of moderation and composure, which seemed rather consistent with the common feelings of common life, than with the refined susceptibilities, the tender emotions which the first separation of a heroine from her family ought always to excite.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Venus in Taurus, March 4 to April 3, will bring out your charms all month long, so use some of your birthday money (if you are given some) for new clothes or a trip to a fine salon for an updated, more refined look.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Their houses are very ill built, the walls bevil, without one right angle in any apartment; and this defect arises from the contempt they bear to practical geometry, which they despise as vulgar and mechanic; those instructions they give being too refined for the intellects of their workmen, which occasions perpetual mistakes.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Montanide ISA 720 is made of natural metabolizable non-mineral oil and a highly refined emulsifier from the mannide mono-oleate family; it is rapidly metabolized and eliminated, and may be used in various vaccines, including cancer vaccines.
(Montanide ISA 720, NCI Thesaurus)
