Verb

(refin)

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

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.

To purify from what is gross, coarse, vulgar, inelegant, low, and the like; to make elegant or excellent; to polish.

To become pure; to be cleared of feculent matter.

To improve in accuracy, delicacy, or excellence.

To affect nicety or subtlety in thought or language.

Verb

(deriv)

To obtain or receive (something) from something else.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz

, title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}

(logic) To deduce (a conclusion) by reasoning.

(linguistics) To find the derivation of (a word or phrase).

(chemistry) To create (a compound) from another by means of a reaction.

To originate or stem (from).

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01

, author=Robert M. Pringle, volume=100, issue=1, page=31, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= How to Be Manipulative , passage=As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.}}

To turn the course of (water, etc.); to divert and distribute into subordinate channels.

* (and other bibliographic details) Holland

For fear it [water] choke up the pitsthey [the workman] derive it by other drains.