| English Dictionary |
REFINED
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Dictionary entry overview: What does refined mean?
• REFINED (adjective)
The adjective REFINED has 5 senses:
1. (used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel
2. freed from impurities by processing
3. showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
4. precise to a fine degree
5. suggesting taste, ease, and wealth
Familiarity information: REFINED used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
(used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel
Context example:
refined people with refined taste
Similar:
mincing; niminy-piminy; prim; twee (affectedly dainty or refined)
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)
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 2
Meaning:
Freed from impurities by processing
Synonyms:
processed; refined
Context example:
to gild refined gold
Antonym:
unrefined (not refined or processed)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
Synonyms:
Context example:
maintained an urbane tone in his letters
Similar:
sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Precise to a fine degree
Context example:
due to the limitations of the available tools, a more refined analysis of the data may be necessary
Similar:
precise (sharply exact or accurate or delimited)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Suggesting taste, ease, and wealth
Synonyms:
Similar:
gracious (characterized by charm, good taste, and generosity of spirit)
Context examples
He has nothing but roughness and coarseness to offer you in exchange for all that is refined and delicate in you.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Using recently refined analysis methods for the 2007 data, the researchers found an increase in water vapor by more than a hundred-fold in the middle atmosphere during that global storm.
(Dust Storms Linked to Gas Escape from Mars Atmosphere, NASA)
I like your nice manners and refined ways of speaking, when you don't try to be elegant.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Yet I have been with good people; far better than you: a hundred times better people; possessed of ideas and views you never entertained in your life: quite more refined and exalted.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Magnesium status is low in populations who consume processed foods that are high in refined grains, fat, phosphate, and sugar.
(Low Magnesium Levels Make Vitamin D Ineffective, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
Previous studies have linked diets high in refined grains — such as white rice — to obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
(Pregnancy diet high in refined grains could increase child obesity risk by age 7, NIH)
Hence there is less distinction between the several classes of its inhabitants; and the lower orders, being neither so poor nor so despised, their manners are more refined and moral.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Refined corn oil is about 59% polyunsaturated fatty acid, 24% monounsaturated fatty acid, and 13% saturated fatty acid.
(Corn Oil, NCI Thesaurus)
For a healthy diet, limit the amount of added sugar that you eat and choose whole grains over refined grains.
(Carbohydrates, NIH)
The Afghan Hound is a sight hound that is tall and slender with a long, narrow, refined head; and powerful jaws.
(Afghan Hound, NCI Thesaurus)
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