fine

adj

1. Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “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.[…]."”

2. (ironic)Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “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.”

3. (informal)Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “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.”

   “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.”

4. (informal)Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “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)”

5. Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “In any case, Feinsilver’s nomenclatural suggestions and fine distinctions did not enjoy widespread adoption.”

6. (obsolete)Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “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”

7. Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “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.”

8. Senses referring to subjective quality.

   “Do you want to talk about what happened? – [sharply, with annoyance or discomfort] I'm fine!”

9. Senses referring to objective quality.

   “The small scratch meant that his copy of “X-Men #2” was merely fine when it otherwise would have been “near mint”.”

10. Senses referring to objective quality.

    “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.”

11. Senses referring to objective quality.

    “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.”

12. Senses referring to objective quality.

    “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.”

13. Senses referring to objective quality.

    “They protected themselves from the small parasites with a fine wire mesh.”

14. Senses referring to objective quality.

    “Coins nine tenths fine.”

15. Behind the batsman and at a small angle to the line between the wickets.

    “[…]to nudge it through the covers (or tickle it down to fine leg) for a four[…]”

16. (obsolete)Subtle; thin; tenuous.

    “The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.”

adv

1. Well, nicely, in a positive, agreeable way.

   “Everything worked out fine.”

2. (colloquial, dated, dialectal)Finely; elegantly; delicately.
3. 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.

intj

1. Expression of (typically) reluctant or agreement.
2. Expression of (typically) reluctant acceptance, without further argument or discussion, of another person's viewpoint.

noun

1. Fine champagne; French brandy.

   “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.”

2. (plural-normally)Something that is fine; fine particles.

   “They filtered silt and fines out of the soil.”

3. A fee levied as punishment for breaking the law.

   “The fine for jay-walking has gone from two dollars to thirty in the last fifteen years.”

   “The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.”

4. (obsolete)Money paid by a tenant on the commencement of a tenancy so that their rent may be small or nominal.
5. A drink that must be taken during a meal or as part of a drinking game, following an announcement that anyone who has done some (usually outrageous) deed is to be fined; similar to I have never; commonly associated with swaps; very similar to a sconce at Oxford University, though a fine is the penalty itself rather than the act of issuing it.

   “Fine if you've…”

6. The end of a musical composition.
7. The location in a musical score that indicates the end of the piece, particularly when the piece ends somewhere in the middle of the score due to a section of the music being repeated.
8. (obsolete)End; conclusion; termination; extinction.

   “And secret feare, to see their fatall fine”

   “Is this the fine of his fines?”

9. A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal.

   “To cause them to pay more rent or a gretter fyne than they haue ben acustomed to do in tyme past.”

10. (UK)A sum of money or price paid for obtaining a benefit, favor, or privilege, as for admission to a copyhold, or for obtaining or renewing a lease.

verb

1. (transitive)To make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify.

   “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.”

2. (intransitive)To become finer, purer, or cleaner.
3. To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.

   “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”

4. To change by fine gradations.

   “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.”

5. (transitive)To clarify (wine and beer) by filtration.
6. (dated, intransitive)To become gradually fine; to diminish; to dwindle (with away, down, or off).

   “I watched her [the ship] […] gradually fining down in the westward until I lost sight of her hull.”

7. (transitive)To issue a fine as punishment to (someone).

   “She was fined a thousand dollars for littering, but she appealed.”

8. (intransitive)To pay a fine.

   “Men fined for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women fined for leave to marry.”

9. (intransitive, obsolete)To finish; to cease.
10. (obsolete, transitive)To cause to cease; to stop.

name

1. A surname.