Word Finder - refinement

definition

The act, or the result of refining; the removal of impurities, or a purified material

definition

High-class style; cultivation.

definition

A fine or subtle distinction.

He was hard and cruel, without any refinement or interest in cultu e.

Her walk was unguarded like her mannerisms, a sweet lack of refinement he wasn't sure he liked.

Yet, apart from its sterling excellence, it is not without beauties, for it is marked by loftiness of thought, a love of purity and truth, and refinement in taste and feeling.

The rise of Persian influence made itself felt in much the same way as the Norman influence in England by bringing a newer refinement into poetry.

For practical purposes this refinement is of small value, the two ideas being aspects of the same thing; cf.

As a man of education and refinement, fond of music, the fine arts, and polite literature, he was unintelligible to the szlachta, who regarded all artists and poets as either mechanics or adventurers.

The literary refinement which marks his essays in prose is not conspicuous in his verse, which is of a more simple character.

Nor were his intimate associates men of refinement and taste; they were rather good fellows who quietly enjoyed a good bottle and a joke; he uniformly avoided encounters of wit with his equals.

Considerations on the Philosophy of Portuguese Literary History, has that peculiar refinement, clearness and conciseness which stamped the later work of this sensitive thinker.

Probably nowhere can the actual historical progress from the primitive use of animal sacrifices to the later refinement of burning incense be more clearly traced than in the pages of the Old Testament, where no mention of the latter rite occurs before the period of the Mosaic legislation; but in the monuments of ancient Egypt the authentic traces of the use of incense that still exist carry us back to a much earlier date.

Charles was impressed with the wealth and refinement of the citizens, and above all with the solid fortress-like appearance of their palaces.

One of the earliest of these poets, Muti' ibn Ayas, shows the new depth of personal feeling and refinement of expression.

She displays throughout much greater real refinement of feeling than the more highflying Roxana, and is at any rate flesh and blood, if the flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot.

Italian society exhibited an almost unexampled spectacle of literary, artistic and courtly refinement crossed by brutalities of lust, treasons, poisonings, assassinations, violence.

A man of refinement and education, a member of an influential family, a popular social leader and an eloquent speaker - at the age of twenty-three he was chosen by the town authorities of Boston to deliver the Independence Day oration - Otis yet lacked conspicuous ability as a statesman.

If refinement is the quality you desire most in your infant girl's wardrobe, then it's best to avoid the more ostentatious version of these socks.

The grammatical structure of some north Australian languages has a considerable degree of refinement.

For in Ford's genius there was real refinement, except when the "suprasensually sensual" impulse or the humbler self-delusion referred to came into play.

At a later period, pari passe with the spiritualization of the god, comes a refinement of the tastes attributed to him, and the finer parts of the sacrifice, finally it may be only its savour, are alone regarded as acceptable offerings.

The subject of this youthful effort was suggested, its author says, by a refinement of vanity - " the desire of justifying and praising the object of a favourite pursuit," namely, the study of ancient literature.

The chief adviser of Theodoric, the East Gothic king in Italy, he accepted with ardour that monarch's great scheme, if indeed, he did not himself originally suggest it, of welding Roman and Goth together into one harmonious state which should preserve the social refinement and the intellectual culture of the Latin-speaking races without losing the hardy virtues of their Teutonic conquerors.

Of foreigners, the Asiatics bore the greatest value, as most amenable to command, and most versed in the arts of luxurious refinement.

They set the fashion of ghazel-writing; and their appearance was the signal for a more regular cultivation of poetry and a greater attention to literary style and to refinement of language.

A profusion of precious stones, and absence of skill or refinement in workmanship, distinguish Roman from Greek or Etruscan jewelry; but in the character of the designs there is no real difference.

By the genius of Rene Theophile Laennec (1781-1826), diseases of the lungs and heart were laid on a foundation so broad that his successors have been occupied in detail and refinement rather than in reconstruction.

By a refinement of cruelty Savonarola was the last to suffer.

Kenzan, adopted his style, and left a reputation as a decorator of pottery hardly less brilliant than Krins in that of lacquer; and a later follower, HOitsu (1762-1828), greatly excelled the master in delicacy and refinement, although inferior to him in vigour and invention.

They worked, too, with a skill little inferior to that of the GotOs, Naras, and other aristocratic sculptors of sword ornaments, and often with a refinement which their relative disadvantages in education and associations render especially remarkable.

From the time of Mimnermus this form seems to have presented itself as the most natural vehicle for the poetry of pleasure in an age of luxury, refinement and incipient decay.

Of course, for many purposes, mean conditions may be adopted and mean scale-values be found which are applicable with considerable pre cision to small angles or to comparatively crude observations of large distances; but the highest refinement is lost unless means are provided for determining the scale-value for each observer at each epoch of observation.

The chief authority for his life is Tacitus, according to whom Secundus was a man of refinement and brilliant intellect.

There he found little religion and less refinement; but no serious difficulty seems to have been made about his reading the classics and the Fathers with his friends to his heart's content.

Although, however, gravitation has formed the most perfect instance of an influence completely expressible, up to the most extreme refinement of accuracy, in terms of laws of direct action across space, yet, as is well known, the author of this ideally simple and perfect theory held the view that it is not possible to conceive of direct mechanical action independent of means of transmission.

Beneath an outward gloss of refinement these nobles were, as a class, coarse and selfish, and they made it their chief object to promote their own interests by fostering absolutist tendencies.

The work is celebrated for its delicacy and refinement, but lacks the life and character of that in earlier ages.

The mannerisms and grotesque exaggerations of his writings annoyed persons of refinement, and suggest Matthew Arnold's advice to flee " Carlylese " as you would flee the devil.

There is a marked growth of refinement and of ideas of morality, and a condemnation of the shameless vice and oppression which went on amid a punctilious and splendid worship. It is extremely significant that between the teaching of the prophetical writings and the spirit of the Mosaic legislation there is an unmistakable bond.

In its hot plastic state iron can be formed and modelled under the hammer to almost any degree of refinement, while its great strength allows it to be beaten out into leaves and ornaments of almost paperlike thinness and delicacy.

And not only in bronze, but in Paris jewellery, enamels, silver, pewter and iron work a cultured refinement is apparent, beside which other productions, even the most finished, appear crude.

According to one account, he was possessed of considerable learning; during his reign the Scottish court attained some degree of refinement, and Scotland counted in European politics as she had never done before.

Inquiries conducted with the refinement which characterizes those of Kirchhoff are always instructive, and his book contains very many just observations; but it is impossible to admit his main conclusions.

But in its technical sense the word is used to describe what the Greek philosophers invented, and what the noblest of them lifted to the extreme refinement of an art.

It may be noted that the peasants of Theocritus differ greatly in refinement.

Nevertheless, in its dimmed and blackened state, the portrait casts an irresistible spell alike by subtlety of expression, by refinement and precision of drawing, and by the romantic invention of its background.

Since identification of spectral lines is a matter of extreme refinement, any cause which may displace lines from their normal places, or otherwise change their features, must be examined scrupulously.

His brother, Spurius Mummius, a man of greater refinement and intellectual powers, accompanied Lucius as his legate to Achaea, whence he sent letters to his friends at Rome, describing his experiences in humorous verse.

In short, More's Platonism appears to be really as hedonistic as Hobbism; only the feeling to which it appeals as ultimate motive is of a kind that only a mind of exceptional moral refinement can habitually feel with the decisive intensity required.

He was a man of refinement who had learned much during his long exile (1842-1859).

The history of the Greenwich observatory is one of strenuous efforts for refinement, stimulated by the growing stringency of theoretical necessities.

But he seems to have had no redeeming touch of refinement or humanity.