Refine

King James Dictionary

REFI'NE,

1. To purify in a general sense applied to liquors, to depurate to defecate to clarify to separate, as liquor, from all extraneous matter. In this sense, the verb is used with propriety, but it is customary to use fine. 2. Applied to metals, to separate the metallic substance from all other matter, whether another metal or alloy, or any earthy substance in short, to detach the pure metal from all extraneous matter.

I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined.  Zechariah 13 .

3. To purify, as manners, from what is gross, clownish or vulgar to polish to make elegant. We expect to see refined manners in courts. 4. To purify, as language, by removing vulgar words and barbarisms. 5. To purify, as taste to give a nice and delicate perception of beauty and propriety in literature and the arts. 6. To purify, as the mind or moral principles to give or implant in the mind a nice perception of truth, justice and propriety in commerce and social intercourse. This nice perception of what is right constitutes rectitude of principle, or moral refinement of mind and a correspondent practice of social duties, constitutes rectitude of conduct or purity of morals. Hence we speak of a refined mind, refined morals, refined principles.

To refine the heart or soul, to cleanse it from all carnal or evil affections and desires and implant in it holy or heavenly affections.

REFI'NE,

1. To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or in any thing that constitutes excellence.

Chaucer refined on Boccace and mended his stories.

Let a lord but own the happy lines, how the wit brightens, how the sense refines!

2. to become pure to be cleared of feculent matter.

So the pure limpid stream, when foul with stains, works itself clear, and as it runs, refines.

3. To affect nicety. Men sometimes refine in speculation beyond the limits of practical truth.

He makes another paragraph about our refining in controversy.

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

Metal-workers were common in the ancient world, and used their skills in a variety of ways ( Genesis 4:22;  Exodus 31:4;  Judges 17:4;  Isaiah 41:7;  Isaiah 44:12;  Isaiah 54:16). If they wanted to obtain pure metals from the raw materials they worked with, they first of all had to refine the metals. This was particularly so in the case of precious metals such as silver and gold ( 1 Chronicles 28:18;  Malachi 3:2-3).

The metal was placed in a fire of intense heat so that, as the metal melted, impurities could be removed. The refining process tested and purified the metal. It was a vivid picture of the way God tests and purifies his people through the sufferings and hardships they experience ( Psalms 66:10;  Proverbs 17:3;  Isaiah 1:25;  Isaiah 48:10;  1 Peter 1:7; see Testing ).

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( v. i.) To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.

(2): ( v. i.) To affect nicety or subtilty in thought or language.

(3): ( v. i.) To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.

(4): ( v. t.) To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or exellent; to polish; as, to refine the manners, the language, the style, the taste, the intellect, or the moral feelings.

(5): ( v. t.) To reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; to free from impurities; to free from dross or alloy; to separate from extraneous matter; to purify; to defecate; as, to refine gold or silver; to refine iron; to refine wine or sugar.

Holman Bible Dictionary

CrucibleEzion-GeberFurnaceMinerals And MetalsMines And Mining

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

The art of refining, as referred to in Scripture, was of two different kinds, according as it was applied to liquids or to metals; and the processes, in themselves quite diverse. are expressed by different words. — In respect to liquids the primary idea was that of straining or filtering — the word for which was זָקִק , Za ( Akdk ( Isaiah 25:6); but in respect to metals it was that of Nelting, and thereby separating the ore from the dross and for this the word was צָרִ , Tsaraph. But the first word also in the course of time came to be used of gold or other metals, to denote their refined or pure state ( 1 Chronicles 28:18;  1 Chronicles 29:4;  Job 28:1;  Psalms 12:6;  Malachi 3:3). In figurative allusions, however, to the idea of refining, while both words might have been employed, we find almost exclusive use made of that which points to the more searching process of purification by fire ( Isaiah 1:25;  Isaiah 40:19;  Isaiah 48:10; Zeckariah 13:9;  Malachi 3:2-3). Hence the term "refiner" or Smelter ( צֹרֵ , tsoreph; מְצָרֵ , Metsareph,  Malachi 3:2-3) denotes a worker in metals, specially of gold and silver ( Proverbs 25:4). a founder ( Judges 17:4), a goldsmith ( Isaiah 41:7). That the ancients acquired, in comparatively remote times, some knowledge and skill in this art, as in the working of metals generally, admits of no doubt. (See Metal).

The Egyptians carried the working of metals to an extraordinary degree of perfection, as their various articles of jewelry preserved in museums evince; and there is no doubt that the Hebrews derived their knowledge of these arts from this source — though there is evidence that the art of working in copper and iron was known before the flood ( Genesis 4:22). The Egyptian monuments also give various representations on the subject, and in particular exhibit persons blowing at the fire, with a pot of metal on it, in order to raise it to a melting heat. (See Bellows).

The creation of a heat sufficiently intense for the purpose was the chief element in the process of refining, although, probably, borax and other substances were applied to expedite and perfect the result. The refiner's art was especially essential to the working of the precious metals. It consisted in the separation of the dross from the pure ore, which avas effected by reducing the metal to a fluid state by the application of heat, and by the aid of solvents, such as alkali ( ָֹבּר A.V. "purely,"  Isaiah 1:25) or lead ( Jeremiah 6:29), which, amalgamating with the dross, permitted the extraction of the unadulterated metal. The Hebrews evidently llunderstood the process of melting the metals, not only to make them fluid for the purpose of casting, but also for separating from the precious metals the mixed common minerals, such as silver from the lead ore with which it was combined ( Ezekiel 22:18-22;  Ezekiel 24:11). The instruments required by the refiner were a crucible or furnace ( כּוּר ) and a bellows or blowpipe ( מִפֻּחִ ). The workman sat at his work ( Malachi 3:3, "He shall sit as a refiner"); he was thus better enabled to watch the process, and let the metal run off at the proper moment. (See Mine).

The notices of refining are chiefly of a figurative character, and describe moral purification as the result of chastisement ( Isaiah 1:25;  Zechariah 13:9;  Malachi 3:2-3). The failure of the means to effect the result is graphically depicted in  Jeremiah 6:29 : "The bellows glow with the fire (become quite hot from exposure to the heat); the lead (used as a solvent) is expended ( תִּם מֵאֵשׁ [ Keri ]) ; the refiner melts in vain, for the refuse will not be separated." The refiner appears, from the passage whence this is quoted, to have combined with his proper business that of assaying metals: "I have set thee for an assayer" ( ָָבּחוֹן A.V. "a tower,"  Jeremiah 6:27). (See Fining-Pot)