Re‐fine″, v. i. 1. To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.
So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains,
Works itself clear, and, as it runs, refines. Addison.
2. To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.
Chaucer refined on Boccace, and mended his stories. Dryden.
But let a lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens! How the style refines! Pope.
3. To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language. “He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy.” Atterbury.