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

(subtiliz)

To make subtle; to make thin or fine; to make less gross or coarse.

To refine; to spin into niceties.

to subtilize arguments

* Burke

Nor as yet have we subtilized ourselves into savages.

To use subtle arguments or distinctions.