Fine v.³

Also 4–6 fyne(n. [f. FINE a.] To make or become fine.

  1.  trans. To make fine or pure; to purify from extraneous or impure matter; to clarify, refine. Also to fine down. Obs. exc. with reference to beer. † To fine chaff: to drive it off in the process of cleansing the wheat.

1340.  Ayenb., 106. Ase deþ þet uer [þet] clenzeþ and fineþ þet gold.

c. 1440.  Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), II. xxix. Also sone as the wyne is fyned & clered thenne it stondeth styll.

1487.  Act 4 Hen. VII., c. 2, Preamb. To fine and part all Gold and Silver.

1521.  Whittington, Vulgaria, etc., (1527), 15. This rynlet of malvesy is not fyned.

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Dec., 125.

1613.  T. Rovenzon, Treat. Metallica, D iij. The Sowe-Iron may be fined at one time.

1686.  Plot, Staffordsh., 338. They have a knack of fineing it [ale] in three days time to that degree, that it shall not only be potable, but as clear and palatable as one would desire any drink of this kind to be.

1761.  Franklin, in J. Adams, Wks. (1850), II. 82 note. The porter now so universally drank here, is, I am assured, fined down with isinglass or fish-glue, for which sixty thousand pounds sterling, per annum, is paid to Russia.

1797.  Downing, Vis. Horned Cattle, 22. That will help to fine and thin the blood.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 103. To ‘fine down’ Spirits.

1859.  Sala, Gas-light & D., vi. 71. Has it been adulterated, ‘fined,’ doctored, patched, and cobbled up, for the amusement and instruction of amateurs in beer—like steam-frigates, for instance, or Acts of Parliament?

  fig.  c. 1340.  Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 2634.

1628.  Coke, On Litt., 97 a. The Law in England … hath beene fined and refined by an infinite number of graue and learned men.

1663.  Blair, Autobiog., ii. (1848), 49. The Lord is pleased by trials to fine the faith of his servants.

1871.  Browning, Pr. Hohenst., 1324.

  2.  intr. To grow or become fine or clear; to clarify. lit. and fig. Also, to fine down.

1552.  Huloet, Fine, reste, or settle, as wine clothe or other licoure, sido.

1664.  Evelyn, Pomona, Gen. Advt. (1729), 89. It will work so long, that when it fines, the Cider will be hard.

1719.  The Free-Thinker, No. 134, 2 July, ¶ 6. The perpetual violent Motions, he repeats daily, trouble his Faculties, and hinder his Mind from fining.

1756.  C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 46. Water, in which any terrene substance is onely mixed, appears muddy and foul, but will fine, by the subsidence of the solid parts, upon standing.

1822.  Imison, Elements of Science and Art, II. 159. The liquor is now suffered to stand for some time to fine (or become transparent).

1859.  Hughes, Scouring of White Horse, iv. 62. It [the ale] hadn’t had quite time to fine down, but it would be as clear as a diamond, he said, if we would please to call in to-morrow.

  † 3.  trans. To make beautiful, handsome, or elegant. Also, To fine up: to furbish up, smarten. Obs.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 1695.

1567.  Trial Treas., in Hazl., Dodsley, III. 263.

1627–77.  Feltham, Resolves, I. xxviii. 48. When the Gentleman comes to him, he does fine up his homely house, and covers his clayed floor, with the freshness of a rushy carpet: and all is, that he may appear as above himself: while he is to meet with one that is so indeed.

1655.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., xii. (1669), 47/2. It is no good husbandry to bestow a great deal of cost in fining up an old Suit, that will drop in a while to tatters and raggs, when a little more might purchase a new one, that is lasting.

1664.  J. Wilson, Cheats, II. iv. He does not fine up himself, as he was wont.

  † 4.  To improve in quality. Obs.

1683.  Penn, in R. Burton, Evg. Emp. Amer., vii. (1685), 111. ’Tis disputable with me, whether it be best to fall to Fining the Fruits of the Country, especially the Grape, by the care and skill of Art, or send for forreign Stems or Sets already good and approved.

1712.  Mortimer, Husb., II. v. 23. It fines the Grass, but makes it short, tho’ thick.

  5.  To make small, thin, or slender.

  a.  To break into fine or small particles. Obs. exc. techn.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke, Pref. 9 b.. They fyne and beate to powder, they laye to the places diseased, not receiptes of theyr owne, but of Christes.

1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Ploughing of Land, If the Land mounts full of Clots, and it is a binding Soil, you must fine it by harrowing it when Rain comes.

1880.  J. Lomas, Alkali Trade, i. 18–9. The large pieces must first be broken down roughly be a ‘fore’ hammer, weighing up to 20 lbs., and then fined by the small tools used for road metal, with cased steel heads.

  b.  To make keen or subtle.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xxix. (1848), 336.

  c.  To fine away, down: to make gradually finer; to thin off, whittle away or down (either a material or an immaterial thing).

1801.  Strutt, Sports & Past., Introduction, p. xxxix. The author, who was a high church-man, endeavours to fine away the objections of its opponents.

1825.  T. H. Lister, Granby, II. iii. (1826), 34–5. I see you won’t allow her to be anything. You are as liberal to her mind as you were to her person, and you fine down her good qualities so dexterously—you are really quite a male Mrs. Candour.

1844.  Mrs. Browning, A Child Asleep, viii.

1866.  Ferrier, Grk. Philos., I. v. 34. In truth, none of the changes have either any end or any beginning, so imperceptibly are they fined away into each other.

1868.  Helps, Realmah, xvi. (1876), 449. And so he would go on, fining down his original statement till at last hardly anything remained of it.

1872.  Browning, Fifine, iii.

1887.  G. M. Fenn, Off to the Wilds, xxix. Impaled upon the horribly sharp stake formed by fining down a good-sized tree.

  6.  intr. a. To become comminuted, dial.

1868.  Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Fine, to become fine and powdery, in consequence of having been slaked.

  b.  To become attenuated or delicate.

1889.  W. Clark Russell, La Mulette, in Eng. Illust. Mag., VII. Dec., 255. As the sun sank into the west the wind fined into light, delicate curls of shadow upon the sea.

  c.  To fine away, down, off: to become gradually fine, thin, or less coarse; to dwindle away to the vanishing-point.

1858.  Bushnell, Serm. New Life, 416. The low superstitions, the coarse and sensual habit, all the idolatrous fashions and affinities which corrupted their religion, have gradually fined away.

1876.  R. F. Burton, Gorilla L., I. 124. The graceful curve of the beach, a hundred feet broad, fining imperceptibly away till lost in the convexity of the waters.

1881.  Daily Tel., 5 July, 2/2. Fining away with delicate keenness at the forefoot.

1884.  St. James’s Gaz., 29 May, 6/1. Beauchamp … had fined down very much since the Two Thousand.

  7.  Of the weather: To clear. rare.

1888.  Scott, Leader, 12 July, 7. [Sailor says] The weather fined a bit.

  8.  trans. To bring into good condition.

1835.  Sir G. Stephen, Adv. Search Horse, ii 27. ‘He was brought out half an hour before, Sir, with legs like millstones. I asked if he was sold, and they told me a gentleman had agreed to buy him. They trotted him up and down the street for a quarter of an hour just to fine his legs.’

  Hence Fined ppl. a.; Fining ppl. a.

1483.  Cath. Angl., 131/1. Fynde, defecatus, meratus.

1555.  in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. xliv. 123. God Almighty, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, of his only pity and mercy, hath bought us out of al the thraldome and captivity of Sathan, not with pure and most fined gold, nor yet with al other precious things in the world, but by the most excellent love-price of his unspeakable love and wisdom.

1599.  A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, To the Reader, 1. Openlye to lay open the same to euerye fined and perpolite witte, and censure.

1613.  Chapman, Masque Inns of Court, Plays, 1873, III. 113.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, I. (1662), 245. In the four and twentieth year of his Raign, there was brought to London in fined Silver in Wedges, seven hundred and four pounds three shillings and one peny weight.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xxix. (1848), 336.

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