refiningn.
/rᵻˈfʌɪnɪŋ/, U.S. /rəˈfaɪnɪŋ/, /riˈfaɪnɪŋ/ 1. An act or instance of refinement; the result of this.
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1581 R. Mulcaster Positions Ep. Ded. sig. iv Now if it shall please your Maiestie..to further not onely the helping of that booke to a refining: but also [etc.].
1592 B. Rich Aduentures Brusanus viii. 70 Gold..is first clensed from his earthlye substance..it then remaineth a mettall, but yet vnpure..wherfore..ther must be a forced refining, & then the gold is perfect.
a1652 J. Smith Select Disc. (1660) iv. iii. 70 After many refinings, macerations and maturations.
1672 J. Dryden Def. Epilogue in Conquest Granada 168 A turning English into French, rather than a refining of English by French.
1686 A. Horneck Crucified Jesus v. 75 Men..are strangely tickled with new things, which are often called refinings, or improvements of old truths.
a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 407 This was such a refining in a point of honour.
1754 J. Edwards Careful Enq. Freedom of Will ii. vii. 64 This seems to be a Refining only of some particular Writers, and newly invented.
1840 H. Bacon Christian Comforter (1848) 14 Is this a purification of memory—a refining of the inward being?
1915 W. Cather Song of Lark vi. xi. 477 Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness.
1972 Times 20 Jan. 5/1 What was involved was a refining of reforms.
2008 Third Sector (Nexis) 30 Jan. 33 A refining of the financial information that needed to be disclosed.
2. The action or process of refine v. (in various senses); refinement.
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society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > [noun] > refining
fining1371
refining1584
affinage1656
finery1771
1584 T. Chaloner Shorte Disc. Nitre 2 What saltnes it [sc. Nitre] had of if selfe..is separated from it in the refyning.
1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies iv. iii. 210 That [metal] which remaines of the refining of gold and silver.
1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs I. 57 The next thing to be consider'd is the Refining of Sugar.
1797 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 37/2 The vessel in which the refining is performed is flat and shallow.
1864 G. O. Trevelyan Competition Wallah iii. 64 The opium goes through a series of processes which may generally be described by the epithet ‘refining’.
1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 168 s.v. The refining of ‘base bullion’ (silver-lead) produces nearly pure lead and silver.
1924 A. J. Allmand & H. J. T. Ellingham Princ. Appl. Electrochem. (ed. 2) xxiii. 585 The simple types of single-ring induction furnaces are of comparatively little use for the refining of steel.
1944 Fortune Mar. 43 (advt.) It is heat energy which paces and stimulates the refining.
1989 Designer's Guide to Paper & Board Oct. 21/2 Refining involves the separation of fibre clumps while in a water solution.
2007 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Feb. 112/2 Nigerian oil is classified as ‘light sweet crude’, meaning that it requires very little refining.
Compounds
General attributive, with sense ‘of, relating to, or used in refining’.In many cases not clearly distinct from refining adj.† refining basin n. Obsolete† refining mould n. Obsolete
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1830 S. F. Gray & A. L. Porter Chem. of Arts II. 475 (caption) A, is the refining basin.
1855 J. R. Leifchild Cornwall: Mines & Miners 211 Plunging billets of green wood into the melted tin in the refining basin.
refining column n.
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1931 La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune & Leader-Press 3 Jan. 5/2 A refining column was 40 feet and 24 inches in diameter.
1965 Times 1 July 23/1 (caption) A 33-ton stainless steel refining column.
1986 New Yorker 17 Mar. 50/2 This Brazilian plant..has sixteen refining columns.
2005 Hydrocarbon Processing (Nexis) Dec. 71 The final or refining column produces resin-grade product.
refining fire n.
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1606 J. Davies Bien Venu sig. A3 Ye Angels which Do celebrate your Soueraignes holy praise, Who ever burne in loues refyning fires, [etc.].
1703 J. Piggott Funeral Serm. 25 There is no refining Fire to purify departed Spirits: The Popish Purgatory is an absurd and visionary thing.
1848 Ladies' Repository Mar. 88/1 The memory of the past is burning within us. Reader, wilt thou share with us the refining fire?
1957 Jrnl. Aesthetics & Art Crit. 15 308 The poetic symbol, refining fire, is said to be symbolic of the ordeals of self-discipline and order suffered by those who seek salvation.
2001 R. Schuchard Eliot's Dark Angel viii. 159 Dante's description of Arnaut diving back into the refining fire broke through here in the draft.
refining forge n.
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1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 712 The German refining forge.
1866 J. Leander Hist. Amer. Manufacturers I. 493 Bloomery forges were erected in the towns of Mendon, Harvard, and Western, and a refining forge in Douglass previous to 1793.
1916 C. Olcott Life William McKinley I. i. 9 As early as 1809, James Heaton had built a small refining forge on Mosquito Creek for the manufacture of bar iron.
1949 Portsmouth (New Hampsh.) Herald 18 Oct. 9/1 The colonialists dragged the lumps of bog ore up from the murky depths and carted them to the nearest refining forge.
refining furnace n.
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1625 R. Bolton Some Gen. Direct. for Comfortable Walking with God 335 The afflicted party is as precious gold, purifying in the Lordes refining furnace.
1673 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words 114 These bars they bring to the refining Furnace.
1719 I. Newton Let. 21 Apr. in Corr. (1977) VII. 35 They took also another little place neare it for a Warehouse & lodging room & for building a Refining furnace.
1814 Emporium Arts & Sci. June 213 The refining furnace is composed of good solid masonry.
1924 Isis 6 304 The whole is then heated in the oven known to men of science as the ‘refining furnace’.
2005 Dominion Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 26 Oct. (Business section) 1 The New Zealand Refining Company..has been forced to shut part of one of its refining furnaces because of an internal leak.
refining house n.
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a1650 G. Boate Irelands Nat. Hist. (1652) xviii. 143 All the Mils, Melting-houses, Refining-houses, and other necessary work-houses, stood within one quarter of a mile..from the place where the Mine was digged.
1700 T. Tryon Lett. upon several Occasions xxxiii. 189 The..Making of Sugar is very heavy and laborious... The sight of the Operation in a Refining-House in London is enough to convince any, that [etc.].
1833 Times 12 June 5/3 The sugar produced in Brazil and Cuba is brought to the refining-house at a cheaper rate than that of our own colonies.
1859 H. W. Halleck tr. Coll. Mining Laws Spain & Mexico 101 There shall be erected at our expense a refining house (casa de Afinacion), with different kinds of furnaces..and such other things as are required for the refining of lead-silver.
1960 Agric. Hist. 34 136/1 In 1768 his works consisted of wind mills, cisterns, a boiling house, a refining house, a rum distillery, and storehouses.
2003 E. Baptist Creating Old South i. 32 He invested in sugar-making apparatus and a sugar-refining house.
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a1658 J. Cleveland Poems (1687) 1 The Still of his refining Mold Minting the Garden into Gold.
refining pot n.
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a1622 N. Byfield Comm. 2nd Chapter of 1st Epist. St. Peter (1623) 624 Praise is lawfull..when it is like the refining pot: it melts vs, and makes vs better.
1705 tr. Whole Art of Dying 283 The Proof Suds being the Tryal which discovers the goodness or falsity of the Dye, as the refining Pot the finess..or baseness of Metals.
1858 E. Fludd Let. 15 Apr. in Annals Amer. Episcopal Pulpit 695 The refiner sits by the refining-pot, and watches it till his own image is perfectly reflected in the silver, and then removes it from the fire.
1983 Mining Jrnl. (Nexis) 29 Apr. 281 The [Bolivian tin] smelter comprises 16 refining pots and two vacuum furnaces.
refining process n.
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1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica II. iii. 560 What is drawn in the refining process, and afterwards sold to the distillers, must be very much impoverished.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 608 The gold produced by the refining process with lead, is free from copper and lead.
1948 Life 6 Sept. 37/1 (advt.) The residues left over from this modern lube oil refining process.
2003 Guardian 16 Oct. i. 20/5 GTL..is claimed to be significantly cleaner than traditional petrol or diesel but the refining process produces considerable carbon dioxide emissions.
refining room n.
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1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Sugar Assoon as the Earth is on the Sugar, all the Windows of the Refining Room are shut.
1871 Nevada State Jrnl. 7 Jan. 1/5 In the refining room silver may be seen in all the forms it can be made to assume.
1992 Independent (Nexis) 6 June 5 The heavy steel door..guards the refining room [of a gold mine].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
refiningadj.
/rᵻˈfʌɪnɪŋ/, U.S. /rəˈfaɪnɪŋ/, /riˈfaɪnɪŋ/ That refines (in various senses); spec. (formerly) subtle or oversubtle in thought or language; (now usually) that makes a person or thing more polished, elegant, or refined.Cf. also refining n. Compounds.
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the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > discernment, discrimination > [adjective] > with delicacy
delicatea1533
finea1566
fine-headed1574
nice1593
refining1595
choice1601
refined1607
point-device1639
exquisite1643
nice-discerning1745
feelingful1943
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > [adjective] > refining
refining1885
1595 A. Copley Wits Fittes & Fancies sig. C2v So all my sowre contraries Are shooing-hornes to swaueties, and refining files.
1676 A. Marvell Mr. Smirke sig. I Some of the Bishops were so ignorant and gross, but others so speculative, acute and refining in their conceptions.
1736 Ld. Hervey Mem. (1848) I. 40 Like many other refining historians, I attribute that to prudence which was only owing to accident.
1775 E. Burke Speech Amer. Taxation 55 Whether [sufficiently] to serve a refining speculatist,..I know not.
1811 W. Hayley Viceroy III. vi. 137 With a refining spirit of delight, Thou canst convert a dungeon to a scene Of midnight bliss.
1875 R. Hunt & F. W. Rudler Ure's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) I. 943 In washing, the metal and refining fluxes are projected together into the crucible.
1885 Athenæum 27 June 828/2 Where the refining power of a genuine master would begin to display itself.
1932 Extension Mag. Feb. 47/2 Fathers who are afraid that their sons will become ‘sissified’ if daily stress is laid on the refining influence of soap and water.
1999 D. Morgan Protestants & Pictures iv. viii. 292 Expressions of the belief in the refining power of the arts.
Derivatives
reˈfiningly adv.
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the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > [adverb] > so as to refine
refiningly1822
1822 Examiner 10/2 The general eye would be refiningly familiarised to the relish and knowledge of Art.
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick xlii. 207 Whiteness refiningly enhances beauty,..as in marbles, japonicas, and pearls.
1954 Winona (Minnesota) Daily News 7 Oct. 20/4 People, detecting this outcropping of humility in Durocher, attributed the reformation to the refiningly subtle influence of his wife.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1581adj.1595