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Fine vs Detail - What's the difference?

fine | detail |

As a verb fine

is .

As a noun detail is

detail.

fine

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) fin, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)
  • (lb) Of subjective quality.
  • #Of superior quality.
  • #:
  • #*
  • #*:"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.."
  • #(lb) Being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory.
  • #:
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=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.}}
  • #(lb) Good-looking, attractive.
  • #:
  • #*, chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=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.}}
  • #Subtle, delicately balanced.
  • #*The Independent
  • #*:The fine distinction between lender of last resort and a bail-out
  • #(lb) Showy; overdecorated.
  • #*(Matthew Arnold) (1822-1888)
  • #*:He gratified them with occasionalfine writing.
  • #Delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; dexterous.
  • #*(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • #*:The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine !
  • #*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • #*:The nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery.
  • #*(Thomas Gray) (1716-1771)
  • #*:He has as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman.
  • (lb) Of objective quality.
  • #Of a particular grade of quality, usually between very good'' and ''very fine'', and below ''mint .
  • #:
  • #(lb) Sunny and not raining.
  • #*, chapter=23
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=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.}}
  • #Consisting of especially minute particulate; made up of particularly small pieces.
  • #:
  • #Particularly slender; especially thin, narrow, or of small girth.
  • #:
  • #Made of slender or thin filaments.
  • #:
  • #Having a (specified) proportion of pure metal in its composition.
  • #:
  • (lb) Behind the batsman and at a small angle to the line between the wickets.
  • :
  • (lb) Subtle; thin; tenuous.
  • *(Francis Bacon) (1561-1626)
  • *:The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.
  • Synonyms
    * (of superior quality) good, excellent * (informal) (being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory ): all right, ok, , okay, hunky-dory, kosher * (made up of particularly small pieces) fine-grained, powdered, powdery, pulverised, pulverized, small-grained * (made of slender or thin filaments) fine-threaded
    Antonyms
    * (made up of particularly small pieces) coarse * (made of slender or thin filaments) coarse

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • expression of agreement
  • well, nicely, in a positive way
  • Everything worked out fine.
    Synonyms
    * (expression of agreement) all right, alright, OK, very well

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Fine champagne; French brandy.
  • * 1926 , Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises , Scribner 2003, p. 14:
  • 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.
  • * 1936 , Djuna Barnes, Nightwood , Faber & Faber 2007, p. 18:
  • He refilled his glass. ‘The fine is very good,’ he said.
  • (usually, in the plural) something that is fine; fine particles
  • * They filtered silt and fines out of the soil.
  • Usage notes
    Particularly used in plural as fines of ground coffee beans in espresso making.
    See also
    * filing

    Verb

    (fin)
  • to make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify.
  • to fine gold
  • * Hobbes
  • It hath been fined and refined by learned men.
  • to become finer, purer, or cleaner.
  • To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.
  • to fine the soil
  • To change by fine gradations.
  • to fine down a ship's lines, i.e. to diminish her lines gradually
  • * Browning
  • I often sate at home / On evenings, watching how they fined themselves / With gradual conscience to a perfect night.
  • to clarify (wine and beer) by filtration.
  • Synonyms
    * (to make or become finer, purer, or cleaner ): clarify, refine, purify

    Derived terms

    * chance'd be a fine thing * cut it fine * fine art * fine as frog hair * fine feathers make fine birds * fine-grained * fine leg * fine line * finely * fineness * fine print * fine-structure constant * fine-tooth comb * fine-tune * fine words butter no parsnips * * just fine * to a fine fare-thee-well

    Etymology 2

    (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=
  • , title=Internal Combustion , chapter=2 citation , passage=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.}}
    Synonyms
    * amercement

    Verb

  • To issue a fine as punishment to (someone).
  • * She was fined a thousand dollars for littering, but she appealed.
  • To pay a fine.
  • * Hallam
  • Men fined' for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women ' fined for leave to marry.
    Synonyms
    * amerce

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) ("end").

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (music) The end of a musical composition.
  • (music) 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.
  • Usage notes
    This word is virtually never used in speech and therefore essentially confined to musical notation.
    Derived terms
    * da capo al fine=

    Etymology 4

    (etyl) finer, (etyl) finir. See (finish) (transitive verb).

    Verb

    (fin)
  • (obsolete) To finish; to cease.
  • (obsolete) To cause to cease; to stop.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) End; conclusion; termination; extinction.
  • * Spenser
  • to see their fatal fine
  • * Shakespeare
  • Is this the fine of his fines?
  • A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal.
  • (Spelman)
  • (UK, legal) 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.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Statistics

    *

    detail

    English

    Noun

  • (countable) Something small enough to escape casual notice.
  • (uncountable) A profusion of details.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli , passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail , a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.}}
  • Something considered trivial enough to ignore.
  • (countable) A person's name, address and other personal information.
  • (military) A temporary unit or assignment.
  • A part distinct from the whole.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}
  • A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
  • Synonyms

    * (something considered trivial enough to ignore) technicality, trifle, triviality * (personal information) particulars * contingent, detachment

    Derived terms

    * in detail * detail-oriented

    See also

    * overview * bird's-eye view * big picture

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to explain in detail
  • I'll detail the exact procedure to you later.
  • * 2014 , Ian Black, " Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis", The Guardian , 27 November 2014:
  • It is a sunny morning in Amman and the three uniformed judges in Jordan’s state security court are briskly working their way through a pile of slim grey folders on the bench before them. Each details the charges against 25 or so defendants accused of supporting the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis), now rampaging across Syria and Iraq under their sinister black banners and sending nervous jitters across the Arab world.
  • (US (?)) to clean carefully (particularly a car) ()
  • We need to have the minivan detailed .
  • (military) to assign to a particular task
  • Derived terms

    * detailing

    Synonyms

    * (to explain in detail) specify * detach

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms ----