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1. (used of persons and their behaviour) cultivated and genteel
   "she was delicate and refined and unused to hardship"; "refined people with refined taste"
    
2. Freed from impurities by processing
   "refined oil"; "to gild refined gold"; "refined sugar";
   - processed
    
3. Showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
   "his refined manner";
   - polished, urbane
    
4. Precise to a fine degree
   "due to the limitations of the available tools, a more refined analysis of the data may be necessary"
    
5. Suggesting taste, ease, and wealth
   - elegant, graceful

1. Improve or perfect by pruning or polishing
   "refine one's style of writing";
   - polish, fine-tune, down [informal]
    
2. Make more complex, intricate, or rich
   "refine a design or pattern";
   - complicate, rarify [rare], elaborate, rarefy
    
3. Treat or prepare so as to put in a usable condition
   "refine paper stock"; "refine pig iron"; "refine oil"
    
4. Reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; separate from extraneous matter or cleanse from impurities
   "refine sugar";
   - rectify
    
5. Attenuate or reduce in vigour, strength, or intensity by polishing or purifying
   "many valuable nutrients are refined out of the foods in our modern diet"
    
6. Make more precise or increase the discriminatory powers of
   "refine a method of analysis"; "refine the constant in the equation"

See also: civilised [Brit], civilized, couth, cultivated, cultured, debonair, debonaire, debonnaire, delicate, effete, elegant, fastidious, finespun, genteel, gentlemanlike, gentlemanly, gracious, ladylike, mincing, niminy-piminy, overrefined, patrician, polished, polite, precise, prim, sophisticated, suave, superfine, twee [Brit], well-bred, well-mannered

Type of: alter, ameliorate, amend, attenuate, better, change, distil [Brit], distill [N. Amer], improve, make pure, meliorate, mend, modify, process, purify, sublimate, treat

Antonym: unprocessed, unrefined

Encyclopedia: Refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil