finer


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Related to finer: Finner

fine 1

 (fīn)
adj. fin·er, fin·est
1.
a. Of superior quality, skill, or appearance: a fine day; a fine wine.
b. Excellent in character or ability: a fine person; a fine writer.
2. Very small in size, weight, or thickness: fine type; fine paper.
3.
a. Free from impurities.
b. Metallurgy Containing pure metal in a specified proportion or amount: gold 21 carats fine.
4. Very sharp; keen: a blade with a fine edge.
5. Thin; slender: fine hairs.
6. Carefully or delicately made or done: fine china. See Synonyms at exquisite.
7. Consisting of very small particles; not coarse: fine dust.
8.
a. Marginally different or subtle: a fine difference.
b. Able to make or detect effects of great subtlety or precision; sensitive: has a fine eye for color.
9. Trained to the highest degree of physical efficiency: a fine racehorse.
10. Characterized by refinement or elegance: people in the finest society.
11. Satisfactory; acceptable: Handing in your paper on Monday is fine.
12. Being in a state of satisfactory health; quite well: "How are you?" "I'm fine."
13. Used as an intensive: a fine mess.
adv.
1. Finely.
2. Informal Very well: doing fine.
tr. & intr.v. fined, fin·ing, fines
To make or become finer, purer, or cleaner.
[Middle English fin, from Old French, from Latin fīnis, end, supreme degree.]
fine′ness n.

fine 2

 (fīn)
n.
1. A sum of money required to be paid especially to the government as a penalty for an offense.
2. Obsolete An end; a termination.
tr.v. fined, fin·ing, fines
To require the payment of a fine from; impose a fine on.
Idiom:
in fine
1. In conclusion; finally.
2. In summation; in brief.
[Middle English fin, from Old French, settlement, compensation, from Medieval Latin fīnis, from Latin, end.]
fin′a·ble, fine′a·ble adj.

fi·ne 3

 (fē′nā)
n. Music
The end.
[Italian, from Latin fīnis, end.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.finer - (comparative of `fine') greater in quality or excellence; "a finer wine"; "a finer musician"
comparative, comparative degree - the comparative form of an adjective or adverb; "`faster' is the comparative of the adjective `fast'"; "`less famous' is the comparative degree of the adjective `famous'"; "`more surely' is the comparative of the adverb `surely'"
better - (comparative of `good') superior to another (of the same class or set or kind) in excellence or quality or desirability or suitability; more highly skilled than another; "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din"; "a better coat"; "a better type of car"; "a suit with a better fit"; "a better chance of success"; "produced a better mousetrap"; "she's better in math than in history"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
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References in classic literature ?
The Partridges declared that they would dig around his vines and make them produce finer grapes.
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IN the evening I started, and drove out to sea before a gentle wind from the southwest, slowly, steadily; and the island grew smaller and smaller, and the lank spire of smoke dwindled to a finer and finer line against the hot sunset.
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It stirred no love nor longing in his heart; it came unattended with pleasant memories of a golden past--inspired no sentiment of any kind; all the finer emotions were swallowed up in fear.
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The sealing-wax had gone, and she had become quite black; but black makes one look very slim, and so she thought she was even finer than before.
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The other seems to draw its strength from the very soul of the world, its formidable ally, held to obedience by the frailest bonds, like a fierce ghost captured in a snare of something even finer than spun silk.
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Its difficulty was much enhanced by the mode of publication; for, it would be very unreasonable to expect that many readers, pursuing a story in portions from month to month through nineteen months, will, until they have it before them complete, perceive the relations of its finer threads to the whole pattern which is always before the eyes of the story-weaver at his loom.
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What is a man but nature's finer success in self-explication?
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And the bird came and brought a still finer dress than the one she had worn the day before.
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Painting also seems useful to enable a man to judge more accurately of the productions of the finer arts: nor is it like the gymnastic exercises, which contribute to health and strength; for neither of these things do we see produced by music; there remains for it then to be the employment of our rest, which they had in view who introduced it; and, thinking it a proper employment for freemen, to them they allotted it; as Homer sings:
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I do not know why my delight in those tragedies did not send me to the volume of his plays, which was all the time in the bookcase at home, but I seem not to have thought of it, and rapt as I was in them I am not sure that they gave me greater pleasure, or seemed at all finer, than "Rollo," "The Wife," "The Stranger," "Barbarossa," "The Miser of Marseilles," and the rest of the melodramas, comedies, and farces which I saw at that time.
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These Mr Allworthy endeavoured to assuage, promising her a much finer bird: but she declared she would never have another.
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David playing to Saul could never have shown a finer sense of the occasion.
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