FINE, a.

1. Small; thin; slender; minute; of very small diameter; as, a fine thread; fine silk; a fine hair. We say also, fine sand, fine particles.
2. Subtil; thin; tenuous; as, fine spirits evaporate; a finer medium opposed to a grosser. Bacon.
3. Thin; keen; smoothly sharp; as, the fine edge of a razor.
4. Made of fine threads; not coarse; as, fine linen or cambric.
5. Clear; pure; free from feculence or foreign matter; as, fine gold or silver; wine is not good till fine.
6. Refined. Those things were too fine to be fortunate, and succeed in all parts Bacon.
7. Nice; delicate; perceiving or discerning minute beauties or deformities; as, a fine taste: a fine sense.
8. Subtil; artful; dextrous. [See Finess.] Bacon.
9. Subtil; sly; fraudulent. Hubberd's Tale.
10. Elegant; beautiful in thought. To call the trumpet by the name of the metal was fine. Dryden.
11. Very handsome; beautiful with dignity. The lady has a fine person, or a fine face.
12. Accomplished; elegant in manners. He was one of the finest gentlemen of his age.
13. Accomplished in learning; excellent; as, a fine scholar.
14. Excellent; superior; brilliant or acute; as, a man of fine genius.
15. Amiable; noble; ingenuous; excellent; as, a man of a fine mind.
16. Showy; splendid; elegant; as, a range of fine buildings; a fine house or garden; a fine view.
17. Ironically, worthy of contemptuous notice; eminent for bad qualities. That same knave, Ford, her husband, has the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. Shak. Fine arts, or polite arts, are the arts which depend chiefly on the labors of the mind or imagination, and whose object is pleasure; as poetry, music, painting and sculpture. The uses of this word are so numerous and indefinite, as to preclude a particular definition of each. In general, fine, in popular language, expresses whatever is excellent, showy or magnificent.

1. In a feudal sense, a final agreement between persons concerning lands or rents, or between the lord and his vassal, prescribing the conditions on which the latter should hold his lands. Spelman.
2. A sum of money paid to the lord by his tenant, for permission to alienate or transfer his lands to another. This in England was exacted only from the king's tenants in capite. Blackstone.
3. A sum of money paid to the king or state by way of penalty for an offense; a mulet; a pecuniary punishment. Fines are usually prescribed by statute, for the several violations of law; or the limit is prescribed, beyond which the judge cannot impose a fine for a particular offense. In fine. [Fr. enfin; L. in and finis.] In the end or conclusion; to conclude, to sum up all.

1. To clarify; to refine; to purify; to defecate; to free from feculence or foreign matter; as, to fine wine. [This is the most general use of this word.]
2. To purify, as a metal; as, to fine gold or silver. In this sense, we now generally use refine; but fine is proper. – Job xxviii. Prov. xvii.
3. To make less coarse; as, to fine grass. [Not used.] – Mortimer.
4. To decorate; to adorn. [Not is use.] – Shak.

1. To impose on one a pecuniary penalty, payable to the Government, for a crime or breach of law; to set a fine on by judgment of a court; to punish by fine. The trespassers were fined ten dollars and imprisoned a month.
2. v. i. To pay a fine. [Not used.] – Oldham.

1. Finished; brought to perfection; refined; hence, free from impurity; excellent; superior; elegant; worthy of admiration; accomplished; beautiful.
   
   

   The gain thereof [is better] than fine gold. Prov. iii. 14.

   A cup of wine that's brisk and fine. Shak.

   Not only the finest gentleman of his time, but one of the finest scholars. Felton.

   To soothe the sick bed of so fine a being [Keats]. Leigh Hunt.

2. To make fine] to refine; to purify, to clarify; as, to fine gold.
   
   

   It hath been fined and refined by . . . learned men. Hobbes.

3. End; conclusion; termination; extinction.
   
   
   [Obs.] "To see their fatal fine." Spenser.

   Is this the fine of his fines? Shak.

4. To impose a pecuniary penalty upon for an offense or breach of law; to set a fine on by judgment of a court; to punish by fine; to mulct; as, the trespassers were fined ten dollars.
5. To pay a fine. See Fine, n., 3 (b).
   
   
   [R.]

   Men fined for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women fined for leave to marry. Hallam.

6. To finish] to cease; or to cause to cease.
   
   
   [Obs.]
7. Finely; well; elegantly; fully; delicately; mincingly.
   
   
   [Obs., Dial., or Colloq.]
8. To become fine (in any one of various senses); as, the ale will fine; the weather fined.
   
   

   To fine away, down, off, gradually to become fine; to diminish; to dwindle.

   I watched her [the ship] . . . gradually fining down in the westward until I lost of her hull. W. C. Russel.

9. Aiming at show or effect; loaded with ornament; overdressed or overdecorated; showy.
   
   

   He gratified them with occasional . . . fine writing. M. Arnold.

10. To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.; as. to fine the soil.
    
    
    L. H. Bailey.
11. A sum of money paid as the settlement of a claim, or by way of terminating a matter in dispute; especially, a payment of money imposed upon a party as a punishment for an offense; a mulct.
12. In a manner so that the driven ball strikes the object ball so far to one side as to be deflected but little, the object ball being driven to one side.
    
    

13. Nice; delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; skillful; dexterous.
    
    

    The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Pope.

    The nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery. Dryden.

    He has as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman. T. Gray.

14. To change by fine gradations; as (Naut.), to fine down a ship's lines, to diminish her lines gradually.
    
    

    I often sate at home
    On evenings, watching how they fined themselves
    With gradual conscience to a perfect night. Browning.

15. A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal.
    
    
    Spelman.

    (b) (Eng. Law)

16. Not coarse, gross, or heavy
    
    
    ; as: (a)
17. Having (such) a proportion of pure metal in its composition; as, coins nine tenths fine.
18. (Used ironically.)
    
    

    Ye have made a fine hand, fellows. Shak.

    * Fine is often compounded with participles and adjectives, modifying them adverbially; a, fine-drawn, fine-featured, fine-grained, fine-spoken, fine-spun, etc.

    Fine arch (Glass Making), the smaller fritting furnace of a glasshouse. Knight. -- Fine arts. See the Note under Art. -- Fine cut, fine cut tobacco; a kind of chewing tobacco cut up into shreds. -- Fine goods, woven fabrics of fine texture and quality. McElrath. -- Fine stuff, lime, or a mixture of lime, plaster, etc., used as material for the finishing coat in plastering. -- To sail fine (Naut.), to sail as close to the wind as possible.

    Syn. -- Fine, Beautiful. When used as a word of praise, fine (being opposed to coarse) denotes no "ordinary thing of its kind." It is not as strong as beautiful, in reference to the single attribute implied in the latter term; but when we speak of a fine woman, we include a greater variety of particulars, viz., all the qualities which become a woman, -- breeding, sentiment, tact, etc. The term is equally comprehensive when we speak of a fine garden, landscape, horse, poem, etc.; and, though applied to a great variety of objects, the word has still a very definite sense, denoting a high degree of characteristic excellence.