fine

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.

3. Thin; keep; 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.

7. Nice; delicate; perceiving or discerning minute beauties or deformities; as a fine taste; a fine sense.

8. Subtil; artful; dextrous. [See Finess.]

9. Subtil; sly; fraudulent.

10. Elegant; beautiful in thought.

To call the trumpet by the name of the metal was fine.

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.

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.

FINE, n. [This word is the basis of finance, but I have not found it, in its simple form, in any modern language, except the English. The word seems to be the L. finis, and the application of it to pecuniary compensation seems to have proceeded from its feudal use, in the transfer of lands, in which a final agreement or concord was made between the lord and his vassal.]

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.

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.

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. [L. in and finis.] In the end or conclusion; to conclude; to sum up all.

FINE, v.t. [See Fine, the adjective.]

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 28. Prov. 17.

3. To make less coarse; as, to fine grass. [Not used.]

4. To decorate; to adorn. [Not in use.]

FINE, v.t. [See Fine, the noun.]

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.]

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