fine
Part of speech: adj
adv
intj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
billiards
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
pool
sports
Etymology: From Middle English fin, fyn, from Old French fin (“fine, minute, exact”), of obscure origin, but probably derived from Latin fīnīre (“to finish”) or fīnis (“boundary, limit, end”), with an abstract sense of fine or thin also arising in many Romance languages (compare Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish fino). Doublet of fino.
Inflected forms:
form: finer
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: finest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: more fine
pos: adv
tags: comparative
form: most fine
pos: adv
tags: superlative
form: fines
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: fines
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: fining
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: fined
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: fined
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
examples: The tree frog that they encountered was truly a fine specimen.
Only a really fine wine could fully complement Lucía's hand-made pasta.
"That's a fine young fellow," said the historiographer of earwigs, to an American who stood next him in the crowd.
"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.[…]."
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
tags: ironic
examples: You're a fine one to talk about laziness.
Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into.
A fine romance, with no kisses,
A fine romance, my friend, this is;
We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes,
But you're as cold as yesterday's mashed potatoes.
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: How are you today? – Fine.
Will this one do? It's got a dent in it. – Yeah, it'll be fine, I guess.
It's fine with me if you stay out late, so long as you're back by three.
Don't worry about us; the storm knocked the power out, but we're all fine.
On the surface, everything is fine. The sleek, futuristic spaceship setting is fine (if a little cold), the acting is fine (or better than fine, in Lawrence’s case), the music is fine, the lighting is fine, the editing, the camerawork—all fine.
Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: That man is so fine that I'd jump into his pants without a moment's hesitation.
It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.
He's so fine (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang) / Wish he were mine (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang) / That handsome boy over there (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang) / The one with the wavy hair (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang)
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
examples: In any case, Feinsilver’s nomenclatural suggestions and fine distinctions did not enjoy widespread adoption.
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: 1853, Matthew Arnold, Preface to The Poems of Matthew Arnold
They will permit the poet to select any action he pleases, and to suffer that action to go as it will, provided he gratifies them with occasional bursts of fine writing
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
examples: Thou haſt ſpoken all alreadie, vnleſſe thou canſt ſay they are married, but thou art too fine in thy euidence, therefore ſtand aſide.
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
The nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery.
He has as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman.
gloss: Senses referring to subjective quality.
pos: adj
examples: Do you want to talk about what happened? – [sharply, with annoyance or discomfort] I'm fine!
gloss: Senses referring to objective quality.
pos: adj
examples: The small scratch meant that his copy of “X-Men #2” was merely fine when it otherwise would have been “near mint”.
gloss: Senses referring to objective quality.
pos: adj
examples: If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough.
gloss: Senses referring to objective quality.
pos: adj
examples: Grind it into a fine powder.
When she touched the artifact, it collapsed into a heap of fine dust.
And if thy oblation be a meate offering baken in the frying pan,it ſhalbe made of fine flowꝛe with oyle.
gloss: Senses referring to objective quality.
pos: adj
examples: The threads were so fine that you had to look through a magnifying glass to see them.
But as our urban lives have grown more pressed for time, we have diced our opportunity costs finer and finer; from budgeting days or slabs of hours, we have come to rationing minutes.
gloss: Senses referring to objective quality.
pos: adj
examples: They protected themselves from the small parasites with a fine wire mesh.
gloss: Senses referring to objective quality.
pos: adj
examples: Coins nine tenths fine.
gloss: Behind the batsman and at a small angle to the line between the wickets.
pos: adj
examples: […]to nudge it through the covers (or tickle it down to fine leg) for a four[…]
gloss: Subtle; thin; tenuous.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.
gloss: Well, nicely, in a positive, agreeable way.
pos: adv
examples: Everything worked out fine.
gloss: Finely; elegantly; delicately.
pos: adv
tags: colloquial
dated
dialectal
gloss: In a manner so that the driven ball strikes the object ball so far to one side as to be barely deflected, the object ball being driven to one side.
pos: adv
gloss: Expression of (typically) reluctant or agreement.
pos: intj
gloss: Expression of (typically) reluctant acceptance, without further argument or discussion, of another person's viewpoint.
pos: intj
gloss: Fine champagne; French brandy.
pos: noun
examples: We had dined at l'Avenue's, and afterward went to the Café de Versailles for coffee. We had several fines after the coffee, and I said I must be going.
‘Darling,’ Lois told her, ‘don't get depressed. Have another fine.’
He refilled his glass. ‘The fine is very good,’ he said.
gloss: Something that is fine; fine particles.
pos: noun
tags: plural-normally
examples: They filtered silt and fines out of the soil.
gloss: To make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to fine gold
1666 (written), 1681 (published), Thomas Hobbes, A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England
It hath been fined and refined by […] learned men.
gloss: To become finer, purer, or cleaner.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.
pos: verb
examples: The tools to be used for this surface tillage are those that comminute or fine the soil most completely without compacting it or leaving it in ridges or in furrows
gloss: To change by fine gradations.
pos: verb
examples: to fine down a ship's lines, i.e. to diminish her lines gradually
I often sate at home
On evenings, watching how they fined themselves
With gradual conscience to a perfect night.
gloss: To clarify (wine and beer) by filtration.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To become gradually fine; to diminish; to dwindle (with away, down, or off).
pos: verb
tags: dated
intransitive
examples: I watched her [the ship] […] gradually fining down in the westward until I lost sight of her hull.
Related words: filing
final
finite
Translations: