1371 in J. Raine Fabric Rolls York Minster (1859) 7 (MED) In fynyng de cclvi petris de cineribus plumbi.

1502 in N. H. Nicolas Privy Purse Expenses Elizabeth of York (1830) 38 Certain personnes..that wrought in fynyng of iron.

1585 Abp. E. Sandys Serm. xviii. 326 The fining of goulde in the fornace.

?1623 True Declar. State Manuf. Gold & Siluer Threed (single sheet) The most present remedy was vtterly to suppresse the said Trades, and all vnlawfull melting and fining of gold and siluer.

1665 D. Dudley Mettallum Martis sig. E2^v Supply these her works with Charcole in Fining of Iron at the Fineries.

1740 J. Ward Lives Professors Gresham Coll. 298 This is a compleat summary of all that concerns the fining and reducing of ores.

1797 Encycl. Brit. XI. 464/2 In the latter method of fining all the litharge is absorbed into the cupel.

1808 W. Nicholson Dict. Pract. & Theoret. Chem. at Refining The workmen employed in this first operation, or fining, give improperly the name lightening to the white skin formed on the surface of the silver.

1864 J. Percy Metall.: Iron & Steel 579 I..apply the word fining to the operation of converting cast into malleable iron..in a hearth or open fire urged by a blast of air with charcoal as the fuel.

1940 G. H. J. Adlam & L. S. Price Higher School Certificate Inorg. Chem. (ed. 2) liii. 562 Carbon steel is made from pig iron in two stages, namely, fining and carburization.

1996 R. B. Gordon Amer. Iron v. 131 The third stage of fining could begin.

2009 P. Craddock Sci. Investig. Copies, Fakes & Forgeries vii. 153/2 In Europe, from the Medieval period until about the mid-nineteenth century, this [sc. the smelting of iron] was done by remelting in an oxidising atmosphere, in a process known in English as fining.

1843 J. Pereira Treat. Food & Diet i. ii. 103 Gelatine (in the form of isinglass principally) is employed as a clarifying, clearing, or fining agent, for coffee, wines, beer, &c.

1921 Glass Industry Oct. 251/1 The use of arsenic as a fining agent is based on the fact that this substance vaporizes rapidly.

1970 Trends in Usage Antimony (National Materials Advisory Board) iv. 47 An estimated 1, 200, 000 pounds per year of antimony oxide and 900, 000 pounds of sodium antimonate are used in the glass industry, primarily as a ‘fining agent’.

2014 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 3 May (Features section) 7 Wines produced from the 2012 vintage onwards that are made using milk or egg-derived fining agents must say this on the label.

1860 R. Hunt Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 5) II. 572 A patent for the employment of steam..in the smelting furnace and fining forge, was obtained.

1973 Econ. Hist. Rev. 26 594 Nef discovered..a rather more sensible estimate of 300 blast furnaces and fining forges.

2006 M. S. Smith Emergence of Mod. Business Enterprise in France 517 The fully evolved ‘English metallurgy’ thus used..a three- or four-step process that started with the smelting of iron ore with coke, followed by the refining of the resulting pig iron in direct contact with coke in a ‘fining forge’.

1560 Bible (Geneva) Prov. xvii. 3 As is y^e fining pot [1611 King James fining pot; Heb. maṣrēp, L. igne] for siluer, & the fornace for golde, so the Lord tryeth y^e hearts.

1640 H. Woodward Childes Patrimony vi. 104 It is not gold that comes not purer out of the fining pot; he that doth not learn by affliction, will be taught by nothing.

1738 J. Hort Sixteen Serm. vii. 261 The Practice of Founders, who run down hard Metals by placing Fire on the Top as well as underneath the fining Pot.

a1878 G. G. Scott Lect. Mediæval Archit. (1879) I. 134 Let us throw them boldly into the fining-pot.

1953 Chymia 4 3 The art of assaying gold and such native alloys as electrum by the ‘fining pot’..was known as early as 1500 B.C.

1868 Technologisches Wörterbuch III. at Émoussoir Fining-roller.

a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. I. 848/2 Fining-roller (Paper-making), a cylindrical wire-cloth sieve in the paper-making machine, which allows the finely ground stuff to pass, but restrains the coarse fibers and knots.

a1425 (?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Linc. Inn) (1952) 6727 God ȝeue alle good fynyng.

?1448 in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) I. 367 Fro the Crest unto the fynyng of the pynnacles xxti fote.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VI f. clx After this shamefull murder, succeded open rapyn..: ouer & besyde raunsonyng, & fynyng of diuers notable marchauntes.

a1627 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Old Law (1656) iv. 53 Your smiles deserve fining.

1661 G. Bishop New Eng. Judged 114 The Consideration of your Gradual Proceeding from One Cruelty to another,..from Cutting off Ears to Finings and Confiscation of Estates.

1721 R. Wodrow Hist. Sufferings Church of Scotl. I. i. iii. 110 They also pass the Sentence of Death upon the Lord Lorn,..and spend much Time upon the fining of Presbyterians.

1794 Trial J. Gerrald 73 When an act enumerates banishment, fining, and imprisonment,..you are not to enlarge those.

1817 C. Durnford & E. Hyde East Term Rep. VIII. 316 The King could only fine by his judges in curiâ and not in camerâ; which excludes any power of fining in any other body.

1879 Jrnl. House of Representatives Connecticut Jan. 121 The bill provides for the fining of any one who either bets or holds stakes on horse racing.

1916 Amer. Industries May 34/1 Most executives consider the fining of employes the most effective means of correction.

1968 Jet 29 June 62 The jailing and fining of Freedom Riders in the South.

2001 Billboard 21 Apr. 77/4 The commission has seemed random and capricious in its fining of stations for indecency since it began the practice more than a decade ago.

1788 Gentleman's Mag. May 270/1 He denied..that a reduction of interest on the public funds had taken place: He said..it is only a fining down;..comparing it to paying a rent of 80l. a-year for a house, but you reduce to 70l. a-year by paying down 100l.

1832 Q. Jrnl. Agric. 3 No. 17. 743 Some proprietors will fine down a lease whenever a tenant pleases, and will renew the lease from the period of fining down.

1880 Daily Tel. 31 Dec. 3/5 The fining-down system, by which reductions of rent were bought out by lump sums.

1911 Weekly Irish Times 18 Nov. 6/3 The Committee undertaking..the fining down of the rents, £400.

1836 Dublin Univ. Mag. Dec. 670/2 To trace the effects of better diet and growing independence, in the fining features of the mouth, in the contracting stomach [etc.].

1888 Daily News 4 Apr. 3/1 A gradually fining river.

1905 Baily's Mag. Oct. 332/1 In the fining water of a spate, sewin will often rise boldly to the fly.

1981 N.Z. Jrnl. Geol. & Geophysics 24 220 (caption) Upward thinning and fining channel-fill bed motif.

2012 J. Haas Geol. Hungary ii. 122/1 During sea level highstands the gradually fining terrigenous material may have been deposited in the subtidal zone of the open ramp.