Definition of: refinement

(ri·fīn′mənt) noun
1. Fineness of thought, taste, language, etc.; freedom from coarseness or vulgarity; delicacy; culture.
2. The act, effect, or process of refining; purification.
3. A nice distinction; subtlety; also, fastidiousness. [<REFINE] Synonyms: civilization, cultivation, culture. Civilization applies to nations, denoting the sum of those civil, social, economic, and political attainments by which a community is removed from barbarism; a people may be civilized while still far from refinement or culture, but civilization is susceptible of various degrees and of continued progress. Refinement applies either to nations or individuals, denoting the removal of what is coarse and rude, and a corresponding attainment of what is delicate, elegant, and beautiful. Culture in the fullest sense, as distinct from cultivation, denotes that degree of refinement and development which results from continued cultivation through successive generations; a man's faculties may be brought to a high degree of cultivation in some specialty, while he himself remains uncultured even to the extent of coarseness and rudeness. See HUMANITY. Antonyms: barbarism, boorishness, brutality, clownishness, coarseness, grossness, rudeness, rusticity, vulgarity.