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Refine vs Strengthen - What's the difference?

refine | strengthen | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between refine and strengthen

is that refine is 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 while strengthen is to make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify; to reinforce.

refine

English

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.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    strengthen

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (lb) To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify; to reinforce.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:Let noble Warwick, Cobham, and the rest,/ With powerful policy strengthen themselves.
  • *1851 , Anonymous, Arthur Hamilton, and His Dog
  • *:A little hardship, and a little struggling with the rougher elements of life, will perchance but strengthen and increase his courage, and prepare him for the conflicts and struggles of after years.
  • (lb) To animate; to give moral strength to; to encourage; to fix in resolution; to hearten.
  • *(Bible), (w) iii. 28
  • *:Charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him.
  • *
  • *:"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) To augment; to improve; to intensify.
  • (lb) To grow strong or stronger.
  • Antonyms

    * atrophy

    Derived terms

    * strengthener